Ronny Richardson tells the tale, which begins with this e-mail to the Walmart.com Help Desk:
I sent a money gram to Cameroon. The local clerk said they could deliver to Yaounde Cameroon and the person I was sending it to could pick up the money at the local Walmart. As far as I can tell, there is no Walmart in Yaounde. Where would they go to pick up the money?
He received this response, which I’ve edited for length:
My major premise is that ITIL (according to its proponents, at least) defines professional standards for IT management. My minor premise is that ITIL and The Cloud are incompatible. My conclusion: Moving your IT infrastructure to The Cloud is unprofessional.
Make this conclusion a major premise. The minor premise: Gartner predicts that within 5 years, one out of five companies will have 100% Cloud-based IT infrastructures. The inescapable conclusion? Gartner is predicting that, in a demi-decade, 20 percent of all companies will abandon their professional standards for IT management.
“Wait wait wait!” I hear you protest through my tinnitus-crazed cochleae. “What do you mean, The Cloud isn’t compatible with ITIL?”
