There is a disruption factor that’s undeniable when talking about cloud computing, and it’s disrupting business on many different levels.

That’s a relatively harmless thing when you’re talking about disrupting business models by enabling software-as-a-service through cloud architecture. But there’s also the disruption that technology can cause in the labor force.

It’s a natural part of the evolution of technology to commoditize those things that can be automated. Labor makes up a sginfcant part of IT infrastructure. It takes people to build and run systems, answer phones, install patches, and everything that goes along with running and supporting the business applications. But at end of the day, some aspects of this work is now being subsumed by technology.

Not unlike outsourcing of any labor or process, anything that doesn’t provide value to an organization will be subsumed by technology in this way. The outsourced labor goes to larger pool of capability in that area, however the organization gains as a result. This allows an organization to increase its strategic focus, increase it’s agility.

The new technology enables employees to better collaborate, not just across departments, but geography. The company can better take advantage of market opportunities. So, if one job becomes less valuable, it will only be accompanied by an increase in value in other jobs, and perhaps even new positions.

Organizations create more jobs by being strategically focused, by being agile enough to see resources as shifting, not lost.

Then what was a cost center becomes a strategic enabler.

This new technology is reducing the friction around ideas: How quickly can you creatively destroy to survive? How quickly can you turn it into value in the marketplace?

That’s the value here before us in cloud computing.