Cloudonomics: The Business Value of Cloud Computing, + Website

Access to Competencies

When selecting a neurosurgeon or cardiologist, most patients don’t make a choice based on comparing the costs of do-it-yourself versus the costs of the specialist but on the simple fact that the physician has competencies and expertise that the patient doesn’t. Although you might attempt brain surgery on yourself for the cost of a knife, thus saving several hundred thousand dollars, it is not recommended.

Cloud computing can provide such access to competencies as well. Running a data center well is a complex undertaking requiring physical security, cybersecurity, certifications, configuration management, automated provisioning tools, power and cooling engineering, and the like.

At the application layer, when taxpayers access HRBlock.com or another tax preparation site, they are accessing a specific competency encoded in software, namely knowledge of and the ability to apply the complex tax code to be in compliance. This value is of course not restricted to the cloud: Individuals and companies access outside counsel who have specific legal competencies, such as expertise in bankruptcy law; investment bankers who have specific financial competencies, such as expertise in mergers and acquisitions; and also plumbers and electricians and nail artists and landscape architects and graphic artists.

As the world continues to develop increasingly specialized expertise, and as a substantial amount of this expertise becomes automated, the cloud will increasingly embody ...