My pun cupboard is empty when it comes to cloud computing.  The idiom inventory is bare too.  It feels like an old debate because it is.  Cloud IT has been around for ages, it’s just grown up a bit and started happening on a proper scale.

Cloud is one area where the IT channel – so often maligned as a boisterous bunch of box-hawking reprobates – has stolen a bit of a march on the more high-falutin’ techie commentators.  They were talking about this absolutely ages ago, back when Google was just a search engine.

It boils down to the fact that channel people are sales people, and take a simple and honest view on ‘new technological paradigms’.  They’ve seen more so-called revolutions than a reincarnated Maoist, and are a fairly safe barometer of bullshit.  They know that there are three things they can sell: kit, consultancy, and cloud.  Kit gets delivered in a van, consultancy gets delivered on a bit of paper, and cloud gets delivered over a connection.

Revolution, shmevolution...

Let’s not forget that resellers and their ilk work at the coalface of the IT industry; they understand customers, they understand vendors, they understand how to make money out of it all.  Want cloud innovation?  Look no further…

Encourage the cloud debate to precipitate (geddit?) by all means, but let the channel have the final word.