November 04, 2009

How to kill the cloud: Claim it's about job loss

Unisys' bragging that a cloud project eliminated U.S. jobs does a huge disservice -- especially because cloud computing is not about job elimination

I was not happy to see the headline "Unisys official says cloud computing can save money by eliminating U.S. jobs" on a story by InfoWorld's Paul Krill last night. I was even less happy by what the story quoted Unisys exec Richard Marcello as saying: "We were able to eliminate a whole bunch of actually U.S.-based jobs and kind of replace them with two folks out of India to serve a 1,200-person engineering organization."

Perhaps I've been in this business too long and, thus, a bit skeptical about these types of claims, but that's not the core issue here. What is the issue is the fact that Marcello is linking cloud computing to "eliminating U.S. jobs," which is something that won't play well outside the boardroom. The last thing any emerging technology needs is that kind of PR -- especially considering it's largely incorrect.

[ Get the no-nonsense explanations and advice you need to take real advantage of cloud computing in the InfoWorld editors' 21-page Cloud Computing Deep Dive PDF special report, featuring an exclusive excerpt from David Linthicum's new book on cloud architecture. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ]

Over the years we've all heard claims of "job-eliminating technology." For instance, the ability to reuse object-oriented programming and eliminate developers, right? Did not happen. Or component-based programming making the same claim -- oops, wrong again. How about distributed objects, SOA, and now cloud computing? See a pattern here?

The fact is that the movement to cloud computing is really just a platform change, and while there should be fewer datacenters and software stacks in a few years, the notion that cloud computing will "eliminate a whole bunch of U.S.-based jobs" is not correct, generally speaking. In the short term, there will be a huge need for cloud computing experts, developers, and architects to assist companies and government agencies in moving to cloud computing. Cloud computing providers will need people to define, develop, and maintain their services. Moreover, those now maintaining datacenters will find new roles in managing cloud computing resources.

The message here is that the cloud computing industry needs to think a bit about what it's saying in the promotion of cloud computing. Some of the "cloud computing experts" are sending wrong and inaccurate messages. In other words, they're not helping.

This story, "How to kill the cloud: Claim it's about job loss," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in cloud computing at InfoWorld.com.

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bko61163 4-Nov-09 5:14am
David, you're a smart guy. I read you often and commend you. However, in this case I ask, "are you kidding me?" Has political correctness entered the fray and does it matter what PR the industry is engaged in ? It doesn't. Better for the industry to speak the truth and head on: innovation restructures and redeploys. This, as with pruning trees to help their growth, the essence of innovation and the cloud is an important part of that. Please read more, including a quick peek at Larry the Liquidator's speech, here http://www.bryankorourke.com/journal/2009/11/4/cloud-computing-political... . Thanks for your writing. I do enjoy it.
prowness 4-Nov-09 6:30am
When's the last time a technical innovation in IT actually eliminated a job? Maybe when word processing eliminated the typing pool and reassigned the typing jobs to the high-paid executives. The real problem I see is IT vendors convincing executive decision makers to make major choices without any technical competence. The execs will try to "save money" with IT department layoffs and outsourcing contracts with cloud providers. Then the fun starts, as the remaining IT staff begins to desert rather than endure the death marches.

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