The Big Switch

Cloud computing is all the rage. According to Nicholas Carr, one of the unstoppable drivers is the economics of cloud computing. Carr uses the history of the electric industry to explain the historical forces that are in play today in the information technology market and that will move Information Technology to more and more of a utility computing model.

There is an informative description of companies such as YouTube who generate tremendous value by providing a platform with a small number of employees that millions of people add value to for free. This viral model has been used a number of times in the Internet space and is one of the forces that is negatively affecting traditional industries such as newspapers.

Carr also covers a number of the social changes that are occurring, including the loss of privacy, which in some ways was the opposite effect that early Internet pioneers predicted.

This is book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the major forces that are moving the Information Technology field.

Buy The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
from Amazon now.