Dear Commons Community,

IBM, Microsoft, Amazon and Google are all expected to spend more than $1 billion annually on their global cloud networks in the coming years.  Even more important, however, is that all these  companies are developing knowledge through their cloud services of how to run truly huge Internet-based computing systems — systems that may soon be nearly impossible for other companies to match.  IBM announced that it will now be upping the ante and making major new investments in cloud computing technology.  The  New York Times reports:

“In 2014, the company [IBM] will make a series of announcements that will shiver all challengers, according to Lance Crosby, chief executive of SoftLayer, a cloud computing company that IBM purchased earlier this year for $2 billion.

More than 100 products, like e-commerce and marketing tools, will be put inside the cloud as a comprehensive series of offerings for business, Mr. Crosby said. So will another 40 infrastructure services, like big data analysis and mobile applications development.

“It will take Amazon 10 years to build all of this,” he said. “People will be creating businesses with this that we can only dream about.”

Maybe. IBM already claims to lead in cloud computing revenue, with $1 billion in revenue in the past quarter alone. That’s impressive, though that revenue includes revenue from software that used to be attributed to a different category at the company. And some of the revenue is being generated by companies IBM recently acquired, including SoftLayer.”

For anyone involved with technology procurement, initiatives by IBM and the other players in cloud computing are worth following.  I have come to the conclusion that much of what we do now on our mobile devices, laptops, and desktops will move with increasing speed to the cloud.

Tony