15 Memorable Cloud Computing Quotes

In the who’s who of the technology arena, Cloud Computing has indeed generated a huge round of applause and a few brickbats too. The brickbats were hurled because Cloud Computing dared to challenge the fundamental software delivery model. In coming years, maybe there will be fewer multi-billion dollar, multi-year contracts than in the past. In the short run, it threatens to dent the profit margin of a few billion dollar IT behemoths. In the long run, cloud has indeed sent them a very strong signal  – innovate or become extinct.

Following are my collection of the most memorable cloud computing quotes which I came across. Some of them are insightful and helped us to understand cloud in a refreshingly new way. Some were driven solely by competition – Corporate Showdowns – Oracle vs. SalesForce, Siebel vs. SalesForce and recently, Microsoft vs. SalesForce.

I’ve tried to balance the list by adding some new quotes apart from the famous and funny Cloud Computing Quotes. Please contribute your favorite Cloud quotes in the comment section.

S.No.	Cloud Computing Quote	Year, By Whom
1.	There’s no way that company exists in a year. [That company is none other than SalesForce.com. Siebel doesn’t exist as a company anymore. In September 2005 it was bought by Oracle Corporation and now it is a brand name owned by Oracle Corporation]	2001 Tom Siebel Founder - Siebel CRM Systems.
2.	The computer industry is the only industry that is more fashion-driven than women's fashion. Maybe I'm an idiot, but I have no idea what anyone is talking about. What is it? It's complete gibberish. It's insane. When is this idiocy going to stop? We'll make cloud computing announcements. I'm not going to fight this thing. But I don't understand what we would do differently in the light of cloud. [Outburst or puzzled…]	2008 Larry Ellison CEO - Oracle Corporation
3.	We think everyone on the planet deserves to have their own virtual data center in the cloud. What a developer gets when they have an account with the Sun Cloud is their own virtual data center.	2009 Lew Tucker CTO - Sun Cloud Group.
4.	Cloud computing is really a no-brainer for any start-up because it allows you to test your business plan very quickly for little money. Every start-up, or even a division within a company that has an idea for something new, should be figuring out how to use cloud computing in its plan.	2009 Brad Jefferson CEO - Animoto.
5.	With AWS a new server can be up and running in three minutes (it used to take Eli Lilly seven and a half weeks to deploy a server internally) and a 64-node Linux cluster can be online in five minutes (compared with three months internally)…The deployment time is really what impressed us.	2009 Dave Powers Associate Information Consultant - Eli Lilly and Company.
6.	The cloud services companies of all sizes…The cloud is for everyone. The cloud is a democracy. --- *Why are we buying more boxes? Why do we need more software for cloud computing? …...The cloud is not a box. It just isn't. There are no apps marketplaces if your cloud is a box. [*After the launch of Oracle’s Private Cloud in a Box] …… *Be ware of false cloud. [*On Twitter after the launch of Oracle’s Cloud in a box]	2010 Marc Benioff CEO - Salesforce.com
7.	There was a time when every household, town, farm or village had its own water well. Today, shared public utilities give us access to clean water by simply turning on the tap; cloud computing works in a similar fashion. Just like water from the tap in your kitchen, cloud computing services can be turned on or off quickly as needed. Like at the water company, there is a team of dedicated professionals making sure the service provided is safe, secure and available on a 24/7 basis. When the tap isn't on, not only are you saving water, but you aren't paying for resources you don't currently need. [The most simple definition of cloud computing]	2010 Vivek Kundra Federal CIO, United States Government.
8.	In the pre-cloud ERA, the cost of building software was so high that we often have to define a scope and leave out functionality which we feel doesn't fetch the ROI for automation. Cloud makes whatever that was previously left out of scope as candidate for automation now! Thanks to simplification, access and affordability brought by IaaS and PaaS.	2010 Suresh Sambandam Founder & CEO OrangeScape
9.	The end of ‘Fashion-IT’ – customers will only pay for value and not technology. With the advent of Web 3.0 or Cloud Computing or platforms such as WOLF, what we are witnessing is that everyone can innovate. So yes, Cloud computing will turn the tables and fire up innovation and consumerism to the scale never seen before…	2010 Sunny Ghosh Director - Wolf Frameworks.
10.	Cloud computing is empowering, as anyone in any part of world with internet connection and a credit card can run and manage applications in the state of the art global datacenters; companies leveraging cloud will be able to innovate cheaper and faster.	2010 Jamal Mazhar Founder and CEO - Kaavo
11.	But we very quickly learned that most Indian buyers fall into one of two categories - they either know enough to trust SaaS or they don't care. --- It's like buying a Tata Magic and that magically turning into a Globus as your business grows - now, that's something you just can't beat!	2010 Narasimhan (Kishore) Mandyam CEO - PK4.
12.	Small businesses will now have the ability to use the same tools and techniques that larger companies enjoyed for years. They can leverage Web 2.0/ Social Media tools to connect with prospects / customers, build their brand, and use Enterprise 2.0 tools to automate systems within their workplace using free, inexpensive and simple tools.	2010 Sahil Parikh CEO - Synage
13.	If you want to be a viable cloud vendor selling products, you have no choice – your product must be multitenant in order to survive in the cloud world.	2010 Alok Misra Cofounder & Principal - Navatar Group
14.	Our industry is going through quite a wave of innovation and it's being powered by a phenomenon which is referred to as the cloud. India will not only see a surge in cloud computing services but companies all over the world will look to India to support their transition to cloud computing.	2010 Steve Ballmer CEO - Microsoft
15.	With the cloud, individuals and small businesses can snap their fingers and instantly set up enterprise-class services.	2011 Roy Stephan Director of IT architecture and engineering - Intelligent Decisions

Some of the most popular technology quotes…

S.No.	Quote	Year, By Whom
1	The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad	1903, The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co.
2.	Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons	1949, Popular Mechanics.
3.	There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home	1977 Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), maker of big business mainframe computers, arguing against the PC in .
4.	The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before.	Bill Gates.
5.	Smartphone makers who use Android are like boys from Finland who "pee in their pants" to keep warm in winter. It may feel good at first, but then things gets worse [Obviously very few can withstand a 600% growth of Android in 2010… Anssi Vanjoki resigned from Nokia in September 2010]	2010. Anssi Vanjoki - [Outgoing] Head of Nokia’s smartphone division.  [source via Financial Times of London]

Did I miss any famous or funny Quote on Cloud Computing? Please let me know through comment section. Also, if you like this article please spread the word about it: +1, Tweet or Like it :-)

References [Cloud Quotes S.No. wise]

1. Forbes India – Dec – 17 | Page No – 55 [Print Ed.]
2. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13953_3-1005218880.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5
3. eweek.com
4. http://www.itworld.com/saas/68088/cloud-computing-pros-and-cons?page=0%252C1
5. http://www.informationweek.com/cloud-computing/blog/archives/2009/01/whats_next_in_t.html
6. http://www.crn.com/news/cloud/228600160/salesforces-benioff-tells-dreamforce-crowd-beware-of-false-cloud.htm?pgno=2
7. http://www.cio.gov/pages.cfm/page/Vivek-Kundra-Testimony-on-Cloud-Computing
8. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/03/develop-saas-orangescape-paas-cloud.html
9. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/04/develop-cloud-saas-apps-wolf-platform.html
10. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/05/kaavo-cloud-computing-security.html
11. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/04/cloud-ondemand-saas-impel-crm-india.html
12. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/03/cloud-project-collaboration-deskaway.html
13. http://www.techno-pulse.com/2010/12/multi-tenancy-essential-attribute-cloud.html
14. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/infotech/software/India-to-lead-world-in-cloud-computing-Ballmer/articleshow/5983079.cms
15. http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/09/technology/cloud/index.htm