Simon Wardley of Canonical Ltd discusses how cloud computing is a natural progression of industry maturity for IT; from innovation, to customized development, to product, to service utility. Therefore, although the definition of cloud computing can seem somewhat cloudy, it’s unavoidable, and a good thing to know what it means to your business.

Wardley informs us how “utility computing,” and “virtualization” have been the dream since tube computing, and that dream is reaching maturity in cloud computing. Drawing parallels to the industrial revolution and the development of electricity as a utility, Wardley makes a case for keeping a weather eye out for cloud-based marketing-model disruptions – and considering whether your revenue can be enhanced by making your offerings available through cloud computing.

Canonical is the sponsor of Ubuntu, the free operating system that offers several common applications. Canonical is now offering Eucalyptus, a cloud-development tool.