Cloud computing and the Super Bowl

After all these years…

They were probably the least memorable, if not the least entertaining ads during the entire super bowl. The Chatter.com 30 second spots, one featuring a pop superstar and the other featuring dancing elephants were the site’s foray into the mainstream (by the way, chatter is part of salesforce.com). Chatter, which may or may not be widely accepted as successful, is sort of like a social network for businesses (way over done, I know). But the implications here are that cloud computing is making its way to the consumer and not just the tech community as a whole.

Actually, what’s interesting is Microsoft started this trend just a few months ago with their “To the Cloud” (and here) campaign. What they’ve done is generate a simple yet effective message for the masses, easier to wrap your head around than just cloud computing (and certainly cloud’s previous monikers, which included the not-so-catchy name “application service provider”). “To the Cloud” and the visuals along with Microsoft’s commercial means your everyday computer users can access information, entertainment and even manipulate and post pictures to share online — all things we’ve been doing for years, yet now they are being packaged and sold by the likes of Microsoft as the next big thing.

With just a simple, over used buzzword like “cloud computing” and a recognizable use case like virtual media streaming, marketing departments can now develop a specific marketing strategy based around the end user…and if they’re smart they already have. The next really important step for management teams and marketing departments alike is to follow Microsoft’s and Chatter’s lead to continue to push cloud computing services into the mainstream public.

With companies like Salesforce.com, Amazon, and most recently the streaming revolution of Netflix, the cloud will soon become instantly recognizable to the average Joe.

At OpenView Venture Partners, along with our growth capital fund, we recently made our first investment into the cloud: Skytap