By now we all know cloud computing will dramatically reshape IT infrastructures inside many organisations. What's not so evident is the impact it's also going to have on the way we work.

Clouds

During the past week I had the chance to listen to a fascinating presentation by the chairman of business analyst firm IBISworld, Phil Ruthven. In it, the veteran industry watcher painted a picture of how he sees cloud computing altering the fundamentals of work.

Ruthven points out that it was the industrial age that brought about the concept of the employee. He believes the term will have disappeared by the second half of the 21st century, due in no small part to cloud computing. Just as the industrial age shackled workers to their workplaces, so cloud computing will set them free.

According to Ruthven's views, cloud computing brings the sort of working flexibility once only be available to very few people to a much larger group.

Freed from the shackles of having to work in a particular location (or within particular hours) they will be free to operate as independent business units.

Because cloud-based systems allow people to access data and applications from wherever they happen to be, workers will be free to define new boundaries about how and where they want to work.

The result will be a dramatic rise in the numbers of self-employed people, many acting as contractors to firms for which previously they might have been employees.

There will also be a shift from the concept of the numbers of hours worked to the measurable output of each worker. If you can get you full-time job done in three days each week, go for it.

Ruthven calculates that around one in eight workers already work from home - a number tipped to rise dramatically in coming years, thanks to the use of cloud-based systems.

Does this kind of future sound appealing to you?