Financial Times has an interesting article out today about the emergence of cloud computing.

In addition to proving a lucid analysis of the cloud space from a business perspective, Richard Waters describes the maturation of IT into the “Information Production Line.”  Waters posits that cloud computing technologies demand an industrial process approach to IT in favor of existing custom processes.  By taking advantage of Platform or Infrastructure clouds, software developers, and the businesses that rely on them, need to industrialize their designs.  This could have negative impacts:

Adopting more standardised systems “will turn IT into more of a manufacturing process than an art”, he adds.

In turn, that could lead companies to decide they no longer want to invest in staying on the cutting edge of the information processing business. The danger, says Mr Daniels, is that this could leave companies without the skills needed to understand and direct their IT.

However, this could (and we think it will) result in greater flexibility, efficiency, and a closer translation of a business vision through IT into realized products.    There is only danger if there is no trust.   We hope, as the industrialization of IT moves forward, that the big machines - the Amazon’s and Google’s - will supply trusted utility as much as your power or water company does today.