Cloud Computing and Social Networking

October marks the second anniversary of Islanda Cloud virtual servers. We have been running VMware hypervisors since October of 2008. As with all technology in the Internet age the movement to virtualization of information technology has been explosive and the growing public awareness of Cloud services is indicative of that momentum. While the growth of our specific area of Cloud Computing is what we live on the general growth of Internet processing services represents a profound transformation of how society and business works. We are seeing only the beginning effects of this as social and business structure begins to shift in response to the new information processing dynamic. This dynamic is shaping the demand for new services and new products to deliver those services. We are just beginning to see the overall outline of how human social institutions and the way we deal with information is changing. But what does this mean for business?

The meaning of this for business can be seen in the implications of two very different areas of change: Social networking and Cloud Computing (the Islanda local/regional model). Social networking is everywhere but primarily tied to the first generation coming of age in the 21^st century. All businesses are moving to tweet and to maintain Facebook pages and trying to link these things to their web sites to generate buzz. But what does that have to do with using subscription virtual servers and desktops? These are linked by trust and defined by community.

Social networks seem to be about pointless and endless information. After all who really cares about what you had for breakfast or what your cat did last night? And this is one of the reasons businesses are struggling with the social networks as advertising media. But these networks are really about communities of trust that begin to help us filter the tremendous deluge of information that the web represents. We all chose our social networks and within them chose our “friends” who we “follow”. Our personal network then feeds us constant information that we give some level of trust. By tracking trends and topics in our select networks we can selectively explore out to find information in vast oceans of information. This appears to be the emerging form of virtual community as trusted information source. An important aspect of this is the steady rise of individual voices replacing faceless organizations. We trust people we know more than organizations.

But what about Cloud Computing? That too is a movement of trust driven by the real benefits of cost and efficiency but based in building a business community with your online provider of computer processing services. We have to be a trusted part of your business family and your business community. It is not the old style contractor services or suppliers channel but a much more personal and dynamic networking relationship. In the larger context we are discovering a new way to build communities of trust in society and business also.

For further reading see I Live in the Future & Here's How It Works by Nick Bilton.

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