The Wealth of Nations and Cloud Computing

Forbes publisher, Rich Karlgaard, made “Twenty Predictions for the 2010’s” on Friday January 8th.

9th on the list: One Cloud Company (Or Another) Becomes the Most Valuable Company on Earth.

This is one very BOLD and BULLISH prediction as the underlying concept of cloud computing was first conceived in the 1960’s and the first cloud-based applications did not emerge until the mid-1990’s. If Karlgaard’s prediction is realized, this will be the result of a great disruption in how companies use utility computing and it is, and will be, a great creator of wealth for entire ecosystems.

Karlgaard asks a great question, and it is one worth pondering: “Who will own the giant fog machine? Google? Cisco? Microsoft? Amazon? Huawei?”

Interesting question indeed.