4G and Clouds

As Ray Ozzie is exiting Microsoft, he has offered some views on the future of enterprise IT that are very provacative, saying basiclaly that those that faik to embrace the new model of cheap, available IT will remain stuck in the rigid, expensive, and poor user experience offered by traditional licensed IT models
(http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/mcafee/2010/10/ray-ozzies-message-to-all-indu.html)  Ozzie's argument boils down to a cloud-based versus controlled approach to IT.  While I agree that ultimately, the user experience will be superior in a cloud-based model (any app, anywhere, any device), the path to get there may be a bit rocky, primarily due to the fact that wireless networks are not able to provide the QoS needed to consistently support many real-time enterprise apps.  An application like desktop virtualization or virtual collaboration will only work with a good user experience where there is high bandwidth, low latency, and high availability.  Without 4G being rolled out everywhere which will take several years, we will need to live with the patchwork of broadband wireless we have today.  Having said this, there are many improvement that could be made in a cloud-based approach using today's wireless networks such as leveraging WiFi in congested areas and creating seamless IP flows between WiFi and 3G network.  While 3GPP release 10 will make this more explicit, there are specs and technologies available to support this type of interoperability, yet due to the threat to current business models, many carriers are not pushing this.  That is until their networks become swamped, they roll-out capped plans, and users satisfaction plummets.  Stay tuned.