Capitalist Times: Take Your Head Out of the Cloud

The most recent issue of Capitalist Times Premium has my latest article, Take Your Head Out of the Cloud. The piece reviews the evolution of the cloud environment and identifies a corresponding stock investment opportunity due to a market overcorrection.

On the one hand, there’s the public cloud, where a company’s data is stored and computing run by a third-party company at another site. On the other hand, there’s the private cloud, which is the new name for a company buying, running, and using its own data centers with its own staff.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid: Companies still do this, and they do it a lot. Analysts at JPMorgan & Chase (NYSE: JPM) estimate that only 5 percent of current data center spending is for the public cloud.

In the past, several cloud providers have tried to win the massive private cloud market by shoving their capabilities into other people’s data centers. This hasn’t worked too well, with Azure and Oracle’s Corp’s (NYSE: ORCL) now quietly hushed-away efforts being the most visible ones.

I also wrote an October update article for CTP‘s model portfolio that focused on recent tech M&A activity.

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* It’s illegal to import non-Brazilian coffee into Brazil. (Courtesy: James Freeman et. al., The Blue Bottle Craft of Coffee)

* The history leading up to the southern WV mine wars. (Courtesy: PBS’ Mine Wars)

* Ebenezer Scrooge, before his Christmas revelation, may have been a proponent of self-use renewable energy. (Courtesy: George C. Scott’s A Christmas Carol)

These are garments, Mr. Cratchit. Garments were invented by the human race as a protection against the cold. Once purchased, they may be used indefinitely for the purpose for which they are intended. Coal burns. Coal is momentary and coal is costly. There will be no more coal burned in this office today, is that quite clear, Mr. Cratchit?

Things I Learned this Week

Among the things I learned this week:
* The hottest new dining spot in Pyongyang is Italy Pizza! (Courtesy: Laya Maheshwari/NYT)

* Americans ate seven pounds of avocados in 2015, double what we ate in 2008. Michoacán is the only Mexican state that can export avocados to the US. (Courtesy: Victoria Burnett/NYT)

* Humphrey Bogart was a serious chess player. (Courtesy: Mike Doyle/Chess.com)

* Oysters first appeared at a restaurant in 1763. (Courtesy: Sam Roberts/NYT)