The reorganization of computing into larger, more demand-responsive cloud-based data centers run by Google, Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and others is part of a shift in business that replaces transaction systems with “systems of interactions,” said Cisco Systems VP of cloud computing Lew Tucker on Wednesday in an address at the Cloud Connect 2013 conference, a UBM Tech event in Santa Clara, Calif.
The transaction systems were systems of record. The interaction systems are “systems of engagement” that will be key to business success in the future, Tucker said, crediting Geoffrey Moore, author of Crossing the Chasm , with coining the “systems of engagement” phrase.
Tucker gave one of the opening keynotes at the Cloud Connect 2013 show, and said there were deeper trends behind mammoth data centers like Facebook’s Prineville, Ore., complex and consumers’ love of smartphones, iPads and other handheld devices. The small computing device communicates from many locations with the big data center, using a small application to get a piece of work done, he noted.
“I don’t think we’ll see any more big productivity suites, like Microsoft Office,” he said. Instead, users will learn a constantly changing mix of small apps that do the things they’re most interested in doing now. It’s all part of corporations trying to become more responsive and interactive with their environment — to behave “less like organizations, more like organisms,” Tucker said.