The Big Switch: How Will the New Grid Will Transform IT? - Nick Carr

In this session, which draws on the themes of his new book "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google," Nick Carr puts the ongoing transformation of IT in a larger context. He argues that more and more of the computing functions that companies rely on will shift from internal data centers to the Internet's vast computing grid, as the World Wide Web turns into the "World Wide Computer." He shows how IT, as a business resource, is experiencing a situation analogous to the rise of the electric grid a century ago, with a fragmented IT supply leading to inefficiencies and inflexibilities in the business use of IT. But he also looks at how IT differs from earlier utility models, particularly in its modularity, and he explains how companies have an opportunity to create hybrid systems that leverage the grid while still finding innovative ways to apply Web applications and databases to a new range of consumer products and services. Finally, Nick looks ahead to how IT departments themselves will be transformed by "the big switch."

 

Really a cloud computing model push - that we will eventually move out of data centers -