Hey Scoble – startups aren’t the cat’s ass you think they are

I like Robert Scoble so let’s just get that out of the way right now, but sometimes I think he has become just too wrapped up within the bubble of Web 2.0 and social media. I think he fails to remember sometimes that there is a larger world out there that uses computers for more than just making cutsey social media knock-offs. I say this because of something that came across his Shared Feed today that just made me shake my head. The post he was sharing was the one that Robert Cringley had written today called Azure Blues; which was his thoughts about Microsoft’s announcement at this year’s PDC.

As you know with Shared Feed you can add a note about why you are sharing this and Robert makes good use of it which is nice. However sometimes it gives us gems like this

Shared by Robert Scoble
Cringley taps into the feeling I have about Microsoft. I just don’t know that it’s strong enough to get enough people on board its cloud computing platform. All the startups I know are on Amazon or Rackspace. I am asking them all whether they will consider Microsoft. I’m getting lukewarm answers, but it’s still early and people are still learning about what Ray Ozzie is up to. It’s not an automatic “bet the company” kind of response that Microsoft had back in the 1990s when they brought out things like SQL Server or Visual Studio, though, and that, indeed should be troubling for Microsoft.

Robert’s basic premise appears to be that Microsoft’s attempt to join the cloud could fail to meet expectation because all these startups are more inclined to use Amazon or Rackspace; which by the way only a recent entry into the cloud themselves which I was suggest that developers will be just as wary of as they might be of Azure. Just how much business does Robert think startups have that will drive more adoption of cloud usage.

Chances are that you could take all the startups currently running and they wouldn’t even come close to what the usage of the corporate market can bring to the table. While startups are looking to do everything on the cheap because they have to be supported by an extremely questionable business model corporations are looking for a consistent platform from a known vendor and while Amazon could give them that they aren’t providing the kind of developer ecosphere that revolves around Micorosoft and its products.

Startups have their place and thank god for their innovation but that doesn’t mean that they are going to be the driving force that Robert seems to think they are – not when it comes to the broad adoption of the cloud. I call bullshit on that idea – sorry Robert.