Consider the cloud.  We’re talking IT not atmosphere, and cloud computing, cloud-based IT, or whatever catchphrase is currently circulating has made it the most ubiquitous and “du jour” term in our industry. People with little understanding of development, programming or architecture know the term “cloud”, and have some vague (and often dangerous) understanding that it is where all the world’s IT innovation and implementation now takes place.

It’s a lofty thought (pun intended), but it’s also troublesome. “Cloud” has become one of those expressions that get applied with a haphazard grasp of what it actually is, like “virtual” a few years ago.

What is “the cloud”? Is it SaaS? IaaS? Are Amazon’s virtualized servers the cloud? For some, it’s Google Docs.  Point being, there is a massive ecosystem within which any number of functionalities are being labeled “cloud”.  And if everything is cloud, then perhaps nothing really is.

We, the IT community, the professionals who operate in this realm on a minute-to-minute basis, need to start clearing things up. We need to define the cloud.

At Windward, we’re seeing how cloud ambiguity is affecting our customers, and it’s troublesome.  Vendors are rushing to market with cloud-based offerings, but they can’t define their services.  Still, because the term has such trendy IT cache, everyone is ready to make massive investments in technology, and enter in to long-term engagements with vendors — all without a precise understanding of whether or not a particular cloud solution is really their best option. Essentially, people are implementing solutions without knowing if they are the right fit for particular needs.

This is madness (and déjà vu of the late 90’s dot.com era). There’s no business circumstance — IT driven or otherwise — where that kind of thinking makes sense.

We need to start prompting our customers to ask the right questions, to best understand their needs, and then — and only then — move toward selecting the right type of cloud solution. For some, it’s Heroku.  For others, SaaS or Salesforce.  Some will need a private cloud.  Some will be able to implement Amazon with fine results.  For most, a “hybrid” cloud solution will be necessary.  In any of these situations, it’s determining the best platform upon which you are going to build your apps.  It’s determining the right definition of cloud to suit the customer.

Armed with this prerequisite understanding, IT vendors can know how to deliver what a customer needs. Just as important, we, as an industry, will start to develop a common frame of reference that helps us understand what’s being built for each customer.  This makes it substantially easier to build, buy, and better negotiate with third-party vendors.

This is where we find ourselves after a couple cloudy years.  We’re seeing an urgent need for a common vocabulary and a universally understood framework that will allow everyone to define requirements and deal with the back end, to establish economics, delivery, and levels of agreement.  We’re doing what we can to get the industry moving toward that enlightened state.

The cloud, as a concept, is awesome, but it’s time for it to evolve in to something more concrete.  Before any customer determines what they want to do with their applications, they need to figure out what their understanding of the cloud should be.

Let’s start making that happen.