Alternative Fuels

So what the heck is a Ceiling Gap?

As an executive on my day job and a part-time consultant for JP Morgan, I have a lot of questions thrown at me from time to time. I see challenges rise and I see people fall. I see technologies rise and I see trends evaporate. I see subtle transitions and I see loads of promiscuity. Anyways I get enough "data" in my head and I have this sense of urgency, the insatiable urge to find a way to solve the loss of the untold. That could ... save the planet. Help the world reshape the global economy and watch the innovation which is deeply embedded within the layers of the the inclined ceiling from where all the ideas drop into baskets and creative destruction (Joseph Schumpeter was nutty enough to have seen it happen 70 years ago when the world was in a much more turmoil than today) takes place.

So anyways I have been toying with the idea of the middle, the place that needs a solid filling and it is that space that is the gap. We all talk about the gap and we use the terms often enough to describe the void between the intellect (innovation) and the laggards (consumption state). That middle is the place where all the battle goes on. So yesterday I got some time and borrowed my 2 year old Son's Nijntje coloring pens, and quickly drew the stuff. Take a look at it, it is in 3 dimensions. x-axis is maturity, y-axis is length or duration before the next ceiling effect comes in and z-axis is the span/width or the reach (is it global? Is it glocal? or purely local?)

Obviously as I starting drawing and my little one saw colors, he too got excited and wanted to participate.



But fortunately I was able to quickly take a snapshot of it and hand over the future of the global economy in his hands. And right so, he has to shape it for his generations.

Now lets take a look at "The Ceiling Gap":



So here the blue-grid is the ceiling. The ceiling is not a place for everyone but the true innovators, the creative destructive folks, the mad ones, you know, the aspergers types (I am mentioning this term for a second time for a specific reason). The gifted freaks! Anyways so the ceiling is where crazy, mad innovation takes place. Many die before making it to the world, they either get bought or simply lose the guzz. Firms , both larger and start-ups, have some minds and initiatives that drive that madness (take it as a compliment, if you associate yourselves with it).

The pink zone, where love happens (Steven Tyler would agree) is also a hard ground to hold. You have to find a way to stay in love.That is the middle. Many firms are looking to fill the gap, the ceiling gap. Many technologies have tried to fill the gap. Cloud computing will have a more reaching impact than many other building blocks. The BRIC blocs will be the first ones to show us all. I have kept repeating that many unexplored zones are the ones that are today so desirous of the pink harrapanization. Africa, S. America and more. More than the BRIC blocs, more than ever imaginable.

This middle is the place which will take cloud computing and approach towards the next layer, created by the consumption state. This middle is where you find the services industry that will practice consulting through their idealogy. This is the place where the money has to be made but this is also the place where you'll feel and be felt!

The yellow zone is the market, the consumers, you and I. This is the consumption layer. This zone is where all the ideas, trickle down and drop through the pink zone and are translated as products, services. That is a natural gravitation phenomenon.

So can Cloud Computing be our "pink love zone"?

I am pretty much confident that I will be. Why? You'll have to read history , economics or you'll just explore the world or you do both. Anyways the opportunities are huge, by 2050 China and India will be one of the top three richest nations. And they will do it all with the pink love.

Cloud investments in the coming years will be massive and the returns will be dramatic. Ideation age will have finally arrived. We need bigger challenges and the answers will be thrown back to us by the citizens of the consumption state, be it alternative fuels, anti-matter/higg's particle, transportation, you name it. The business and IT domain convergence would have happened by then . That is why Cloud will have a significant impact on the future of computing as we know it.

So I hope you enjoyed reading and I know, I know...you want pink, so here it is :-)