Connecting Sharing Economy to Cloud and SaaS
The cloud model is highly efficient but can we think about applying similar concepts elsewhere?
Do you think the capability of the cloud could be decentralised by the use of individual computing power aggregated at a public level? That is the main point I shall be making in this article and what possibilities that improbability might open up (if at all).
Imagine not depending on Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Google, or any other single point of failure, banning authority, or censorship discretion for doing business efficiently via means of a public cloud. Blockchain could be part of the solution but it isn’t necessary. Automated contract and policy flows exist and have been enacted from some time. Instead of one entity, there could also be a few that depend on one another and are enforcers and/or non-profits. There could be many options.
Why am I talking about “ludicrous” ideas? So that you don’t think twice about sharing something similar in your office, with family/friends, or within any other space. Sharing anything on the internet is permanent. Perpetual. Exposed to the world for eternity. I hope that makes you less fearful of anyone smirking at your idea in closed environments. No, I am not the bastion of invincibility when it comes to forming ideas, but that is just as much my point as it is not worrying about judgment from a global audience when trying to build a brand online.
Secondly, thinking about issues in isolation or in a boxed mindset leads to limited and inefficient solutions that often are inept. This is why I strongly believe in the need to learn to connect not only in a collaborative sense but also from a conceptual point of view. As mentioned before, I finally have figured out what I can write about for the foreseeable future without being a specialist of any one sector — as I like to have my hand in multiple cookie jars. Most of my articles going forward will bear the theme of connecting disparate concepts to yield probable value.
Coming back to the idea — at the core it is the sharing economy concept trying to build the cloud service for any business. Individuals having spare computing power could volunteer their infrastructure to the main grid almost like any solar rooftop home feeding the common energy grid for earning credits or money. Businesses sign up for a certain capacity of this public cloud and have the option to pay a premium for unplanned requirements. It would be very similar to surge pricing that happens with Uber. Individuals offering their assets at those times would get a better return.
Now, I totally agree that this would require some engineering marvel and architectures that need more than just out-of-the-box thinking. That being said, if this were to be possible, a plethora of opportunities would open up. Think about software or SaaS taking up such a provision. Say you wanted Grammarly but didn’t want the monthly expense as you need it just for a couple of days for an important report. I absolutely understand that there are other ways to do that but think about the user experience if this becomes sort of like the current mobility roaming experience. Grammarly is subscribed to for your device but you get a monthly, quarterly or annual bill only when you use it — kind of like a pay per use. Moreover, it is not infrastructure on the cloud but individual people buying credits of the application for making money by renting it out to users. Think about how quickly software applications could be deployed. Additionally, this could be a new funding model wherein you don’t raise through kickstarter or VCs but rather let users experience your MVP and they don’t necessarily buy equity but had the option of acting as sales channels through asset/infrastructure investments via pooling their own resources. Much of the funds raised go into scaling startups and this could potentially be a scaling model that validates alongside as well. All that was a mouthful and I wouldn’t blame you if I lost you there, lol !! I know it is a little early in the weekend to start getting high but feel free to assume that I am floating in my thoughts; hell, this idea is seemingly from there, lol ;-P !!
Another thing that could be leveraged would be social media in building this ecosystem. In case we could allow requirements to be stated regionally, pricing gets enabled to be set in advance. Moreover, imagine the internet of thins (IoT) coming into the picture. This would mean that one could not only feed infrastructure and/or assets to a supposed “grid” via only computer hardware but also through intelligent devices. This could mean and build a new dimension for SaaS altogether since one can build applications for smart devices and deploy them through the power of the people.
Okay, fine — enough about la la land. Time to get down to some pragmatism. Some realism. Just a little bit for now perhaps until I chug down another couple Jagerbombs ;-P !! If you enjoyed the concept so far even though you thought some or most of it was a stretch you might be curious at the least. Feel free to explore these patents on “Sharing resources between a CPU and GPU” and “Collaborative power sharing between computing devices” to drive more ideas and build on such ideas for all you know. Who knows, you could be onto something and 10 years later, boom — a billionaire is born. Dreaming doesn’t hurt. Neither does drinking Jagermeister; not in the short term any way ;-P !!
Before I end, I just want to reiterate what concepts we tried collaborating to build a new vision for the future that can create value and scale phenomenally if it can be engineered. These are things I tried intertwining in some or the other way:
- sharing economy
- SaaS and Cloud
- energy grid and solar rooftop concept
- roaming concept from mobility
- social media (briefly but there could be more)
- internet of things (briefly but there could be more)
- VC/fundraising or Kickstarter type models for startups (briefly)
Have a wonderful weekend. If you found this somewhat “pie-in-the-sky” thinking it is probably because it mostly is. My prerogative is for people to not only share ideas but keep their literal sense a tad subdued when listening to such ideas. Many times it is one piece of the idea that can connect elsewhere that brings about groundbreaking change.
Let me know in the comments whether there is value in such connection of concepts as exhibited in this piece. If yes, please do share in case you have a specific angle in mind or are curious about and I will try my best to explore it and bring it about in some part of any subsequent article. Take care :-)
