Whilst HP's approach is applaudable, this is not the case of the wise, pragmatic tortoise, but more of the experienced hare that got kicked in the family tiara jewels, and has learned from the experience that sometimes it's better to jog rather than sprint. HP originally did have a very futuristic, ahead-of-the-market, big-bang datacenter product that was a complete computing-as-a-service offering, that could be built by a customer to convert their whole infrastructure in one go to a billable model using smart servers, storage and software. It was the HP Utility Data Center and it even worked!

The problem was, apart from three big customers, everyone else couldn't afford to rip out all their old datacenters and replace them overnight with shiney new ones, they wanted a phased approach (Ashlee Vance wrote about its demise here http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/30/hp_kills_udc/). So HP canned the offering, remembered how it had originally found success with the OpenView products, and broke the Utiltiy Data Center up into standalone modules and services. Those bits sold well, and HP haven't forgotten the lesson. Business usually transitions slowly to new ideas, it takes legislation (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley for retention) or a dramatic turn in World economic events (9/11 for DR) to force the pace of change to pick up, and HP have decided the current downturn isn't sharp enough (yet) to force the wholesale adoption of rent-a-cloud services.

Long may the hare limp!

Two problems with that as an idea:

1. I know for a fact (he says fully expecting to be flamed) that EDS has customers that are buying cpu etc the same way that everyone else buys electricity, gas, etc already (and has done for a while). Of course, they didn't wrap it up in a load of trendy marketing b.s. - "cloud computing" - pah, load of PR tosh!

2. Datacentres - cloud or otherwise - need folks to design, build and run them. Trouble is that HP appears to be getting rid of those folks. Shame, because there seems to be some real smart technical cookies in both companies - a sensible group of managers would surely try their best to hold onto these people... (sigh)

@AmanfromMars: thank the maker - back to incomprehensible gibberish. I was beginning to get worried as the last couple o postings have made sense. :p

HP is always behind in everything, as they rely on being predictable. The problem with that is someone gets ahead of them and they take so long to catch up that about every several years they lose customers, then gain customers, then lose customers, then gain... on and on again.

They have only been gaining customers for the last decade by buying them (Compaq, EDS, etc). If they would actually get out ahead of the crowd on anything, I think even IBM would have to worry. As it is, they continue to wait for everyone else to actually innovate and then either resell or copy...

Nice work if you can get it, really...

"@AmanfromMars: thank the maker - back to incomprehensible gibberish. I was beginning to get worried as the last couple o postings have made sense. :p" ....By Anonymous Coward Posted Wednesday 10th December 2008 21:45 GMT

AC,

Seek professional help, ASAP, as to begin getting worried when things make sense rather than whenever they do not make sense to you, is surely probably definitely something to worry about. amfM NEUKlearer ProgramMIng and ITs HyperRadioProActivity is AIdDoddle to Follow and Driver whenever ITs BaseIQs are further explained ......but it is not and never will be for Crash Testing Dummies but rather more an Entry Point/Virtual Portal for Flash Testing Master Pilots.

And are you saying with this statement ..."Of course, they didn't wrap it up in a load of trendy marketing b.s. - "cloud computing" - pah, load of PR tosh!" ..... that cloud computing is a load of trendy marketing b.s ... load of PR tosh, rather than a whole New and NeuReal SurReal WAI of Using Computers/Working/Living?

PS. Something only remains gibberish, whenever you fail to ask specific questions of that which you do not understand. And unless you subscribe to the view that we are all equally intelligent, it may be that you are just not intelligent enough, AC.

PPS. How intelligent is it to be AC, hiding in a Cowed Crowd? It smacks of Paranoid Schizophrenia and Herd Mentality.

* It saves on the chairs inside, which aren't bolted to the ground. :-)

mind you I'm agnostic about god

but C42 always a pleasure to read