Cloud Computing Libraries and OCLC's "Web-scale Library Management Service" Strategy

Richard Wallis, Marshall Breeding, and Google associate product manager for Google Book Search, Frances Haugen discuss cloud computing and how it will influence libraries in this recent Library 2.0 Gang podcast. Cloudofdata.com's Paul Miller chimes in to provide an overview of this sometimes perplexing "cloud computing" phenomenon before the conversation moves on OCLC's strategy to move library management services to Web scale. See OCLC press release. "Interpreting the OCLC announcement, writes Richard Wallis, "it is clear that it is a approach to deliver hosted library management services from the  cloud in direct competition to the traditional ILS vendors such as SirsiDynix, Ex Libris, Innovative, Talis, and even those that OCLC have consumed over recent years,"

The podcast is an excellent introduction to these topics and issues. More generally, see Where is the cloud? Geography, economics, environment, and jurisdiction in cloud computing by Paul T. Jaeger, Jimmy Lin, Justin M. Grimes & Shannon N. Simmons on First Monday. (As an emerging new technology ... cloud computing raises significant questions about resources, economics, the environment, and the law. Many of these questions relate to geographical considerations related to the data centers that underlie the clouds: physical location, available resources, and jurisdiction. While the metaphor of the cloud evokes images of dispersion, cloud computing actually represents centralization of information and computing resources in data centers, raising the specter of the potential for corporate or government control over information if there is insufficient consideration of these geographical issues, especially jurisdiction.) [JH]