"Future Shock for the Web-apps era.... Compulsively readable—for nontechies, too."—Fast Company Building on the success of his industry-shaking Does IT Matter? Nicholas Carr returns with The Big Switch, a sweeping look at how a new computer revolution is reshaping business, society, and culture. Just as companies stopped generating their own power and plugged into the newly built electric grid some hundred years ago, today it's computing that's turning into a utility. The effects of this transition will ultimately change society as profoundly as cheap electricity did. The Big Switch provides a panoramic view of the new world being conjured from the circuits of the "World Wide Computer." New for the paperback edition, the book now includes an A–Z guide to the companies leading this transformation.

The Big Switch is a well written book that takes the reader a a journey through time and the technology that makes our day the way it is. It starts by talking about how accessible power changed the way factories and communities worked. The more that bought electricity the cheaper it became and eventually the majority is reliant upon that power. Taking this concept Carr parallels the development of electricity to our modern web era. Today most of us can't get by without checking our email or facebook status updates. We have become reliant upon it and us it in every day situations, google maps, ordering pizza, taking to our family and making business plans/advancements. Overall the book opened my mind to how the internet is changing our societies and cultures into one big melting pot.

As I went to read the The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr, I found myself a bit skeptical of what he would write and how he would possibly bend truths to make a point. I couldn't have been more wrong. I found his book to be based on a series of well documented facts and events that lead us to where the web is today and theories on where we are going tomorrow with the cloud/world wide computer. It was fascinating to read...I found I did not want to put the book down and when I did I wanted to tell my colleagues about it and get their perspectives...and to also share with my cutomers so they can see the evolution and future of the web as well. I have and will continue to recommend others read this book to give perspective and understanding of again where have been and what the possibilities and probablities are in the future. Definitely a thumbs up!

This is a very powerful book that builds on Carr's earlier publications.

I work with very large scale IT systems and I think that the economic and behavioural analysis is spot on. As a technology becomes ubiquitous:
- the capital costs depend on the maximum load,
- the operational cost depends on utilisation,
- initial innovation drives an industry of suppliers with competing standards that deliver diminishing relative benefits until there's more value in standardisation,
- the incumbent suppliers and technical specialists fear or cannot see the change coming.

If you want to understand more of the How, I recommend reading it with Berkeley's Abovetheclouds paper for further insights into how a business model like Amazon/Google/MS enables part of the future, hinting at how much of the exponentially increasing 'run' costs of IT (that are driven by the current 'local generation' model for IT) can be eliminated.

His concluding comments about how the Big Switch for IT concentrates wealth, rather than distributing it as previous technologies have done is not pleasant, but does seem to be on the right lines. Although it could be argued that this change is less about the Technology piece and more about the use of the Information piece.

The book provides a good analogy between the technology of the Internet and the power industry. In many ways you can see the similarities and that may potentially help provide some guidance as to the future development of the Internet. If nothing else it certainly indicates that access to the Internet will be as important as access to electricity.

The author certainly makes some assumptions that some of the small changes we are seeing today will result in large changes to the way we consume technology down the track. However, using the electricity industry as the bench mark you would have to agree that things certainly appear to be panning out the way that the author foresees.

The books provides some interesting insights into the electricity industry and how it grew to be something that is almost omnipresent now. It also take a look at the personalities and decisions that shaped the developments of the industry and effects that key decisions made in its growth. This provides a nice juxtapose to what is happening with technology given the advent of the Internet.

The book is easy to read and very interesting but tends to weaken as it progresses and deals more with todays technology. Many of the concepts it focuses on here are well defined and in some respected being repeated by multiple authors. It would have been nice to see the author draw more future analogies in what we might come to expect from technology based on what has happened with electricity.

All in all, a very worthwhile read and something that will make you think, especially if you are wanting to understand about all this 'cloud computing' stuff.

Very informative book. A unique approach to computing as a utility. I love the history stories in the book.