Now there’s a headline that I’m not sure has been written before. An article in the Guardian caught my eye today. In it Richard Stallman (aka ‘RMS’) makes his opinion on ‘cloud computing’ very clear in his own, inimitable, manner.

Normally I take an RMS interview with the proverbial grain of salt, he has a strong, non-negotiable viewpoint on the commercial and proprietary software models which doesn’t align particularly closely with mine but I completely respect his right to an opinion. While I may not agree with his viewpoints I often enjoy the passion and conviction with which he delivers them  :-)

Anyway, the reason I was interested in the Guardian interview was that a couple of the points he makes are not completely out of alignment with Microsoft’s view on ‘cloud computing’.

In a nutshell, Microsoft’s view is that while some software and services will end up ‘in the cloud’ customers should have the choice about whether or not they want to head down that path and, importantly, have the choice to move in the opposite direction (i.e. move from the cloud to partner-hosted or self-hosted solutions) if they choose to do so. A great example of this in action is Microsoft Exchange.

Customers can host their own Exchange servers, outsource that hosting to a local hoster or they can have Microsoft do the hosting for them. When it comes to the client end of the equation, customers can choose from Microsoft Outlook or they can use a browser and access their Exchange-hosted email via Outlook Web Access. A Windows Mobile device is also an option. That implementation matrix provides customers with a lot of choices while preserving their ability to change their mind further down the track. We call this approach Software + Services (S+S).

Back to the interview. This quote from RMS was interesting:

"Somebody is saying [cloud computing] is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true"

Hallelujah ! I once sat in on a panel discussion which included a Software as a Service (SaaS) vendor who spent much of their time telling the audience how the concept of locally-hosted software was dead and that everything would eventually live in the cloud. In other words it was supposedly inevitable. As I’ve said before, saying something over and over again doesn’t make it true and I think Richard hit the nail on the head with that quote. Microsoft’s view is that S+S is an addition to the traditional software delivery models not a replacement. Choice is good and cloud computing is simply another choice.

So, onto the next quote:

"One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software"

Personally, this how I would have phrased it:

"One reason you should not use think carefully before you decide to use web applications to do your computing is that you may lose some control," he said. "It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless. You're putty in the hands of whoever developed that software."

That last bit is classic Stallman and there are many thousands of software developers, companies and individuals (including me) who would strongly disagree with him but, again, he’s got an opinion and has every right to communicate it. That first sentence however, when modified slightly, is pretty close to a conversation I’ve had recently with a couple of customers who are convinced that SaaS is the way, the truth and the light. Many of them have not fully considered the implications of such a move – especially with regard to the privacy and security implications of moving commercially-sensitive information or customer information off-premises or off-shore – and it worries me that departments in some companies may be racing ahead with a SaaS decision without engaging with their IT and legal departments to work through potential risk and mitigation strategies.

I will admit I’ve drawn a bit of a long bow with this post. RMS is pretty clear he’s anti cloud computing while my view (and that of my employer) is that it constitutes a valid choice for customers. I did like the headline though.