Brother, can you spare a paradigm?

If there is one phrase that I find annoyingly overused in describing Cloud Computing, it is the cliché “paradigm shift.” I have even heard “new paradigm” combined with it to create the redundant phrase “NEW paradigm shift!!”

The most common synonyms for “paradigm” include “example, model, pattern, and archetype.” In other words, a paradigm means “business as usual.” A paradigm SHIFT then, would be a disruption in the normal, a radical change, or a new pattern.

Does Cloud Computing really represent a paradigm shift, then? As I have argued in the past, renaming one’s highly virtualized, automatically-provisioned data center would not qualify by definition. In order for something to qualify as a paradigm shift, it should REALLY need to “shake things up a bit” and make the status quo unrecognizable.

The computer age has seen a number of true paradigm shifts. The very invention of the Hollerith Tabulating Machine allowed the 1890 U.S. Census to return results months ahead of schedule, and far under budget. The same machine, unfortunately, was highly popular with the fledgling Nazi regime as a means of categorizing and classifying Jews, Gypsies, gays, freemasons, and other “undesirables” in order to efficiently process them for deportation, and transportation to Concentration, and Death Camps.

Whether for good or nefarious purposes, the “computer” changed life as we know it. Those of us old enough to have folded, spindled or mutilated an “IBM card” also recall how that primitive storage evolved to magnetic tape, grew to refrigerator-sized Direct Access Storage Facilities, and eventually shrunk to the 16GB micro-SD card that slide into the telephone/GPS/multimedia devices that hang from our belts.

THESE were paradigm shifts ! While I’m strolling down memory lane, I can recall a newly-minted class of bluish/white-collar workers called “keypunch girls” (a sobriquet I once held, working my way through college, because “Personnel” – there were no “Human Resources” then, had no other code for the position.) Though I never revealed my actual job title to my comrades, a pleasant side-benefit was daily access to several dozen, mostly single young ladies who earned sufficient wages to afford their own apartments. But I digress.

The Computer industry saw a steady evolution of technologies from the day Liebniz created his “reckoning machine” but along the way, there were some innovations so novel that they changed culture not only behind the glass doors of data centers, but for humanity at large. Perhaps it is getting harder and harder to distinguish between evolutionary and revolutionary just due the the rapid pace evolution seems to keep.

Distributed Processing was a big deal as IT evolved from “Data Processing” and individual departments took increasing responsibility for their use and upkeep. Mid-range systems and client-server had huge impacts in organizations, but let’s face it, did not affect the population at large. Perhaps they were paradigm shifts for IT, and office workers, but certainly not as impactful on society as predecessors.

The invention of the PC, whether you want to choose the Altair, Apple I or IBM PC as your personal starting point, changed lives. While “home computers” quickly found themselves (often with great protest) breaching the walls of Corporate America, the profound change they wrought was that common individuals in their homes were granted powers over information far beyond those ever seen in the evolution of mankind.

It is easy to forget the importance of CD-ROMS, those vestiges of yesteryear supplanted by DVD, Blue-Ray and who knows what next? But woe unto the investor in encyclopedia publishers who could not see the writing on THAT wall. In the same era, the ubiquitous modem, and services like The Source, Compuserve, Prodigy and the most successful of all, America Online made the humble gaming, tax return and recipe device a communications powerhouse the likes of which had never been seen. This was a paradigm shift for sure, only to be overshadowed by the mother-shift we all know as “The Internet.”

The Internet and World-Wide-Web, though admittedly evolutionary in nature, have so radically altered human behavior and commerce across the globe as to take its place among the major paradigm shifts in mankind’s history. The Ice-Age, the Renaissance, The Industrial Revolution and two World Wars now compete with an overweight Romanian teenager lip-syncing on YouTube. Welcome to the 21st Century.

But seriously, folks.. in the short time the Internet has been with us. we have seen so many radical changes occur so quickly that we almost don’t notice them… unless we are affected directly. The Postal System, telecomm carriers and commercial print houses have felt the effects of email, cheap IP-based pipes and e-zines more deeply than we consumers notice. Think retailers and travel agencies are unaffected by Amazon and Expedia ? When was the last flea-market or yard sale where you found a REAL bargain since eBay came online?

Yes, Cloud Computing WILL be a paradigm shift to those of us whose livelihood depends on making bits chase one another in an orderly fashion through little copper and fiber tubes, but in the grand scheme of things, it will probably be of no more consequence than Distributed Computing was to Mainframers, or Web-Based architecture was to the Client-Server folks. Some of us will adapt, and make our livings in the Cloud. Others will find they are much happier tending bar, or dealing arms to rogue nations.

Don’t let a little paradigm shift bug you.. not even a NEW paradigm shift.