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A farewell to clouds 
7/27/2009
Catchy, huh? Alas! This is my last InfoWorld Cloud Computing post. I've really enjoyed writing for you for the past seven months, but my mounting responsibilities mean it's time for me to bow out. I'm going to do a little less writing about cloud computing and a whole lot more working in the cloud. In fact I've just posted a "Down-to-Earth look at Cloud Computing" podcast on BMC's new Cloud Computing Community. Never fear. Neither I nor InfoWorld's Editor in Chief Eric Knorr would leave you in a lurch. David S. Linthicum (Dave) will be taking the helm, and man does he bring a lot of insight. Dave is an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader. He's authored or coauthored 13 books on computing, including the best-selling "Enterprise Application Integration" (Addison Wesley). He's also a well-known keynote speaker on the conference circuit and works with several cloud computing startups. The column couldn't be in better hand. Before I sign off, I'll leave you with three things I would like you to take away from my time here: [ Cut straight to the key news for technology development and IT management with our once-a-day summary of the top tech news. Subscribe to the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ] 1. Keep the hope; lose the hype. It's really easy to get caught up in all of the hype surrounding cloud computing, and just as easy to lose hope in it when you've weeded through the overwhelming amount of crap that's out there. As I've said before, continuing to market cloud computing as the next magic bullet will guarantee dissatisfaction. We need a Windex-clear definition to take this buzzword from cotton candy to New York cheesecake. Eric has raised this flag several times in his blog, going so far as to offer the industry a standard definition: "the use of commercial computing services, including software-as-a-service applications, delivered over the Internet." It's up to us to the community to make this tangible and concrete. 2. Be realistic about what you're getting into.  
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