At a pre-conference Meetup recently, one of the organizers waxed poetic about how the cloud is changing how companies do business. His big example was ZipCar, the car sharing company. His example was how Zipcar uses cloud to deal with data.
But, I think he missed the bigger analogy there: how cloud is changing IT the way Zip car forever changed car ownership.
Before Zipcar, a few large firms dominated the car buying market. If you wanted a car you went to a dealership and negotiated a long term contract. You took on the responsibility for owning, maintaining, and paying down the costs for the life of your vehicle. Your car selection was also limited by what the local dealership had on the lot that day. The cost to buy, own, and maintain a car kept many people from having the mobility of a car.