Cloud deniers are the flat earthers of the tech world

I hate when people comment on my column without actually reading my column.

Last week, I wrote about the simple trend that anyone can see: The cloud is coming, so prepare yourselves for a shift in IT focus if you want to remain relevant. But somehow, some people read it as the eventual demise of the on-premises IT admin, perhaps because they saw only the headline “There’s no future in on-premises IT — it’s time to move to the cloud.” It’s unbelievable how many people angrily responded without actually reading the story.

I’ve received a tremendous amount of support but also a lot of ridicule in the past week. I can take it — I started developing a thick skin soon after I promoted Windows Vista when InfoWorld was pushing its Save XP campaign six years ago. My point was that the last decade was about virtualization, the current decade involves convergence solutions (data centers in a box, so to speak) and hybrid solutions, and the future of IT will move away from on-premises hardware into a new utility-based model.

Look, I’m not a foreteller of future events. I can only go by trends, and it is obvious to me that as public cloud offerings improve, security strengthens, and prices go down, we’re going to see a bigger shift to public cloud environments in its various forms: SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, and so on. We’ll see more automation, and we’ll see the tools become easier to use. What was once possible only in the hands of an IT guru will be manageable by anyone with a little training.

But let me be clear: I’m not saying IT will no longer be relevant. I am saying that IT will need to change to remain relevant. IT the profession will do that organically, as it always has. My advice to you, the individual IT admin, is to see the trend and begin preparing for the changes ahead.

Of course, some people will always kick back against changes. Consider early virtualization naysayers who pooh-poohed the technology, saying they would never run their key servers in a virtualized environment. It didn’t take long for most to change their tune — although a few Fred Flintstones still refuse to adapt and say virtualization is a performance hit they cannot absorb, no matter what the stats say about virtualization’s solid performance on modern hardware.

Remember 13 years ago when Microsoft showed up with a server called Windows NT and threatened to rule the enterprise one day? Unix admins laughed and said it would never happen. But it did. Today, Microsoft is saying the on-premises server is moving to the cloud. Push back all you want, but it’s happening.

Even though he essentially called me a “Debbie Downer,” I’m in full agreement with my colleague Robert X. Cringely when he says, “If you’re a hermit crab and figured you could base your entire career on an MCSA and Server Manager, you’re in trouble. You might want to revisit your barista training, but not because the data center is going to become so simplified that no one needs you anymore. They’re going to drop you because they need people with more and deeper skill sets.” (That’s my emphasis, by the way.)

Cringely also said, “Better yet, you’ll need experience, lots and lots of it. Get involved in the hard projects, learn what you need to get things done, and up those communication skills. You’ll not only keep your gig; you’ll move it forward. It sounds hard, but if you’ve been in the biz for more than three years, change and upkeep shouldn’t be new to you. If it is and you weren’t expecting it, buckle up and get ready for a bumpy reality.”

Funny, I think I said the same thing.

Many people in IT get it, but it’s clear many do not, or do not want to. Yes, we all have jobs to do and vendors we support, so we can claim the cloud isn’t coming, to keep our current sponsors happy. But doing so is irresponsible. It is coming, and it’s my job to report that reality. Yes, when I speak about convergence at conferences, I expose the cloud failings as the reality of today, but that doesn’t mean I don’t see the writing on the wall. I’m not saying hardware is dead. I’m saying you need to improve your skills so that you can move in new directions as the cloud becomes the present.

What I don’t grasp is how Cringely and others can be so shortsighted in pointing out recent public cloud outages as a means of telling IT folks not to worry. Those failures are indeed slowing cloud adoption, as are concerns over network connectivity availability and cost, and the fear of widespread government Internet spying as revealed by Edward Snowden. (As if the NSA can’t get your data whether it’s stored locally or in a cloud — come on, people!) Those are real issues today, companies like Microsoft, Amazon.com, Google, and Cisco Systems are dedicating the full force of their considerable resources to address these questions.

My wake-up call is for those people who are still thinking backward: people who are still complaining about PowerShell or that Office has the ribbon interface (it’s been seven years, people — embrace the ribbon!). Yes, I believe in pushing back when it’s necessary. After all, I’m on the Save the Start Button committee.

But this cloud thing is happening, and it’s time to get on board.

This story, “Cloud deniers are the flat earthers of the tech world,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Read more of J. Peter Bruzzese’s Enterprise Windows blog and follow the latest developments in Windows at InfoWorld.com. For the latest business technology news, follow InfoWorld.com on Twitter.