Exploding myths #1: The Cloud is "easy"

Partner-in-crime Brad Feld has an interesting post up today entitled, "Cloud Computing Streak Marks." The post's impetus was some communication Brad received talking about how the "cloud" was going to be so easy "his mom could do it." The punchline:

Oh, and my mother is really smart, but I’m betting that “The solution is to override the base64encoder and set the authorization property manually OR potentially use the Apache Http client rather than the built-in JDK client” doesn’t mean much to her.

Brad couldn't be more right. As I look at the Glue agenda, I'm struck by just how difficult it is to make all of this stuff be easy. And that's really the point: the goal of the cloud is to be easy, but achieving that goal probably means 5-7 years (YEARS!) of really hard stuff. JDKs, JSON, XMPP, WOA, REST, SAML, OAuth, XRD, and SimpleDB aren't easy (even if you know what the hell that all means)!Fortunately, <registration pitch> we're assembling a bunch of incredibly smart folks for you to talk with, work with, build with and chill with at Glue - so register today </registration pitch>. ;-)