The book that started it all

My interest in cloud computing began after reading Nicholas Carr's book, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google. Doyle had suggested it to me and was so impressed with the book that he gave copies to his staff. We had several lively discussions about the book which ultimately led us to where we are now, writing and presenting on how the cloud will change higher education IT as we know it.

If you haven't read Carr's book yet, we encourage you to do so. Carr draws a thoughtful, carefully constructed analogy between the evolution of the power utility and the future of computing. The idea of computing as a utility is not new, and especially not now, a year after the book was published, but it makes for very interesting reading. What I find particularly compelling is covered in the second half of the book--the economic and social impact of cloud computing, i.e. what will this all mean for us?

That will be one of the main topics of discussion on this blog--stay tuned.