A look at how cloud services help independent developers
Launching this site was exhilarating. I couldn’t resist frequently checking Google Analytics. The good news is that my user numbers are higher than I expected. Even so, I have a long way to go before mega sites like the The Verge or TechCrunch have anything to fear. Now that the site is up and running, what’s next? One of the reasons for starting this blog was to explore what are my available options. Today, I’m going examine why I think I have a chance as an independent developer.

The Big Picture

If you look at the current market cap of public corporations. In the following table, between five and six of the companies listed are tech companies. Starting with Apple, all of them were founded within the last forty years, and they are more valuable than traditional blue chips, such as Johnson and Johnson, ExxonMobile, and Berkshire Hathaway.

Moore’s Law

In some degree or other, they have all benefited from Moore’s Law. Without going into too much detail, as computers get ever small, cheaper, and more powerful they can offer more services for less money. At the same time, what they can offer is so attractive, we willing surrender our data to them. So the more they get to know what we’re searching for (Google), what we like (Facebook), or what we buy (Amazon), the can not only become better but more deeply entrenched.

Little Fish

Paradoxically, although most of the power is the hands of the big companies that doesn’t mean that all is lost. In fact, they have provided opportunities for those of us lower down the food chain. As Ben Thompson has observed, the big players also offer cloud services that help level the playing field for smaller players. To illustrate this point, he has observed on his Exponent Podcast that one of the reasons that startups have opened up in expensive locations like San Fransisco, (and Tel Aviv), is that they not only need to buy servers but they don’t need to rent the extra space to house them. In my case, this means I can work out of my house, a local hub, or any place that has decent wireless internet.

Puzzle Pieces

Cloud services have created tremendous opportunities for the rest of us, it is important not to look at them in isolation. For example, it is important to a number of tools, services, environments, and methodologies. In order to give you a better understanding of how the pieces of the puzzle fit together and not to overwhelm my readers, I am going to break things down into smaller, and more digestible pieces. In my next article, I’m going to illustrate the points I’ve made here with some specific examples.

Last Points

It is worth noting that this is not the first time I have examined this topic. I once gave a presentation called the The New Web. I also covered some of the same ground in Cloud Collaboration. Both of these articles were written in 2014. On the whole, I think much of what I wrote is still relevant, but there have also been significant changes.

AOB

If you have any comments or questions, please use the comments section below.

I would like to offer my thanks to Aaron Hyman for testing the site, and letting me know which links were broken. I have fixed them, but if anyone finds a broken link, typo, or inaccurate information, please get in touch. If you don’t want to leave a comment, you can use use the links in the About page.