Yes, that is a weak attempt at a pun in the headline. Not so much a pun as a metaphor that doesn't quite hold water, so to speak. Covering Cloud Computing can do that to a person. It's a cirrus deal...

Anyway, I was talking to a Cloud vendor executive earlier today, getting some background on the company's mobile business. Will post the interview in a few days.

From the conversation, I gleaned that IT departments were all settled in, nice and comfy, with the Blackberry, which provides its own Enterprise Server environment and plays well with others. Enter the iPhone and proliferating Droid phones, and the ground has shifted.

The exec pointed out that not only do neither Apple nor Google provide their own enterprise server, they're in fact building ecosystems of applications that could bedevil IT for years to come.

The deployment of mobile devices--this includes laptops, netbooks, and iPads--is maybe 20% complete, according to one estimate I've seen. Could be far from that, especially if you look at the potential growth in data flow rather than the increase in devices.

Companies seem to have usage policies, and through years of developing and deploying web services and even SOAs, are more than familiar with the challenges of orchestration and governance. And they can certainly control what all these new mobile phones can access--or at least access through their networks as opposed to WiFi in someone's home or Starbucks.

I'm curious about what IT managers really do make of all of this. Are you merely resigned to, or supportive of, all the new devices working their way into your infrastructure? Do you view the dual rise of Cloud and mobility as a double-whammy to your set ways? If so, is this adding more stress or is it a relief that at least everything is happening at once? And what do you think of the chances of Microsoft/Nokia adding serious numbers of W7 devices to your Blackberry/iPhone/Droid triumvirate in the next couple of years?

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