“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” – Morpheous from The Matrix.  I couldn’t resist.  It’s a poignant quote in a time of rapid change for the world. And isn’t that ultimately what the Matrix was all about.   Last night I dusted off my Blue Ray version of the Matrix trilogy and sat down to a night of entertainment… but in the middle of Matrix Reloaded I had a moment of Deja Vu.  The machines are taking over the world?  Humanity is about to be crushed by the great AI Architect?  Isn’t that what Cloud Computing is all about?  Well…. no.  But maybe we can make a connection through the question, “Isn’t the Cloud about to take over IT as we know it?”  Hmmm…. an interesting thought, no?

Every day I get the opportunity to test this theory working with thousands of Citrix Service Providers who, frankly, are absolutely changing the way IT is done.  They’ve all taken the Red Pill!  They don’t just hand out a PC or Mac, load up the software and ship it to the perspective client.  No, quite the opposite, they ask the “Human” (sorry.. the Matrix references keep coming) what they want to do and then they provide a service to any device at any location.  They know the Human isn’t a mindless luddite whose job it is to produce energy for the Master Architect.  They in fact have choice.  The Human can chose to BYOD and access any application they desire based on their need.   There are actually millions of Humans in “Zion” asking for this type of pay-as-you-go service model.  That is why so many CSPs are growing at exponential rates.

Now, CSPs have come out from their underground hideouts to proclaim to the world… YOU HAVE A CHOICE.  At Summit in Barcelona Citrix is sponsoring an unprecedented forum (of 11 sessions) for partners who want to “take the Red Pill” too.  Three of the sessions (Summit 102, 103 & 212)  will integrate actual partners into the forum so that you can see first hand how this transformation is taking place.

So….Are you going to Barcelona?  Or are you going to take the Blue pill?