Cloud computing perspectives and questions at the World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum started a research project at Davos 2009 concerning cloud computing, which they broadly define to include all kinds of remote services, from Software as a Service to virtual machines.

I was asked to provide some ideas on the implications of cloud computing for business as well as its future operating environment. To allow my colleagues and the O'Reilly community to help define the issues and provide references, I've put up a discussion forum as a wiki. Anyone with relevant and valid ideas can suggest points. I don't even mind people listing their businesses and information sources, so long as the information is relevant and is directed toward the larger educational goal of the wiki.

I'm holding a phone call with someone from WEF on Thursday, July 16 where I'll present my views, augmented by your suggestions.

Here are the categories of the notes I used to seed the wiki.

• Benefits and drawbacks for potential clients
• Benefits and drawbacks of offering software as a service or using a development environment
• Access
• Resilience
• Portability
• Environmental implications
• Software freedom
• Government use

Update, July 17:The phone conversation with a research director at World Economic Forum went well. She had already seen the wiki. We had a pretty free-ranging discussion during which i brought up my favorite points, including access issues and the need for different types of applications for different populations. I passed on some resources that readers sent me and gave her the URL of this blog with all its comments. I'll continue to collect ideas in this area and work on the wiki.