Tuesday 13 July 2010

Cloud Computing and Corporate Karma

There are so many definitions of the word Karma. And, there are several types of karma – the good, the bad and ... wait a minute ... I haven’t heard about the ‘ugly’ karma.
The phrase Corporate Karma is also not new. There are numerous interpretations of it. There is even a movie by that name I think. To me, majority of the definitions of Corporate Karma seems to have a slightly negative overtone.
For the sake of this article, let’s assume Corporate Karma to be just a metric that tracks current activities and strategies of the enterprise and somehow impacts the future of a business. And let’s confine our focus to Corporate Karma accumulating at IT department.
There are two important questions now:
First how does one accumulate the bad Karma?
Any book on eastern philosophy will answer this question. Overconsumption, accumulation, waste, controlling others, glorifying oneself and not serving others.
Applying this to business, let’s see how a business accumulates karma. It does so, by
-          accumulating assets
-          over-consuming, wasting resources, energy and money
-          establishing control on methods, tools, people and processes
-          creating illusion of mystic aura around nerdy services
-          abusing the word ‘service’
Now, “how does one redeem the bad Karma?” would be our second question.
There are several methods to do so. Not surprisingly, the method that works for you is always unknown, and, seems like a moving target. So, every approach is equally good until you find something that actually works. Hence, it is not surprising to see many people offering different approaches. Even I want slip in one from my side – “Cloud Computing”
How so?
Through virtualisation, you can do more with less and hence won’t need many assets. Through SaaS you can rent software and avoid expensive recurring licenses. Through new pricing models, you will buy only what you actually need. As a result, you could reduce accumulation, spend and wastage.
That’s not all – cloud computing helps further. With the cloud technologies, you could transfer some of the control of your mystic IT to external service providers by aligning your methods and processes with theirs. Thus, you would become unified with the global whole – you are no more an island – your dot is connected with that of others ...
With cloud technologies, you would open up to your enterprise. IT is no more a mystic department hidden behind complex equipment. You become an interesting element of every department. You are no more a nerd or a geek – but just a buyer of services. And you can manage more than an awkward smile.
You will not be busy looking complex or fighting complex code or beastly machines. And slowly the word ‘service’ becomes your mantra.
Oy ... please come down to earth – you seem to be floating! Floating is prohibited. Health and Safety you know.
So, there you go. Cloud computing helps you not to waste resources, not to accumulate assets, to give up control and serve others.
If these won’t help redeeming bad karma, what else would?
Think ... think ... think ...
(Needless to say that this article should be taken lightly and not lightly at the same time!)

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