Nicholas Carr:  Cloud as a feature

Good post by Nicholas “IT Doesn’t Matter” Carr about a model for leveraging “the cloud” in a very interesting manner.  He introduces the term “Cloud-as-a-Feature” or “CaaF,” which we don’t necessarily see gaining much traction as a buzzword, but is an important concept to explore in commercializing cloud computing.

Key thoughts / takeaways:

• “By radically changing the economics of high-performance computing, the cloud democratizes the supercomputer.”
• “…the cloud is most interesting as a means of doing new things with computers, rather than just doing old things in a new environment.”
• “…if you want see some of the most creative thinking about how to meld cloud services with traditional PC software you’d do well to look not at Microsoft…”