sky6

Tim O’Reilly sits atop Techmeme at the moment with his post on Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing. It reminded me of Andreessen on Platforms from just over a year ago. Good to see my old pal Hugh involved in this debate too as he often brings some sanity in a world of geekdom – though other times I think he’s more of a geek that the rest of us.

Anyway, all of these post serve to illustrate that Cloud Computing is on the same or greater trajectory than Web 2.0 was back when Tim originally coined the term. If you’re an IT guy worth your salt, you’ll need an opinion on this stuff. The same way you had to have an opinion on Web 2.0 so Marc and Tim’s posts are both good reads that will prime you in business models and technical architectures.

The simple fact is though that nobody knows where Cloud Computing is headed and the term is pretty loosely used which creates for more confusion and more opportunity for experts to weigh in with their opinion.

Me, I’m no expert but like Tim I think the platform part of Cloud Computing has the potential to be the big game changer. Microsoft will play a part I’m sure but this is a brave new frontier we’re all crossing. In many ways it reminds me of the Windows– a platform that created an unbelievable ecosystem. I suspect it’s only going to get more interesting tomorrow morning.

I wish I was headed down to Web 2.0 now to see Tim’s take on things.