Fog everywhere — how SONM is going to disrupt the cloud computing market

5 min readSep 28, 2017

While consultants around the world advise on how to move into the cloud and how to optimize organizations in order to compete in todays global competition, the next disruption is on the horizon and of course — it is powered by Blockchain.

Updates on the roadmap, strategic partnerships and further information can be obtained in my new article “SONM: With an optimized roadmap all the way to the moon and beyond”.

The goal is tremendous: Build the ultimate super-computer!

Imagine all your available computer power could be shared to serve that machine while your CPU is in standby. Do not only think of your iPhone and your iWatch — think about the IoT future when even a CoreOS running microwave will be connected to the internet.

SONM is going to provide a marketplace where you can rent these capacities for $SNM — an ERC20 Token. Another ambitious project is Golem (ICO in November 2016).

What can be run in the fog

While Golem aims for the niche of special computing tasks like machine learning and image rendering, SONM is on the run to disrupt the whole portfolio of Amazon Web Services by aiming for general computing. Everything which fits inside a Docker container (and that is almost everything) can be run on the decentralized network — right now! Using their alpha, even a smooth running CS:GO server for Team Stratis was deployed by Yulian Kuncheff. This truly leaves possible competitors like Golem, iExec and Elastic way behind. But the cake is more than big enough…

Cloud computing market by 2020

The cloud technology market is very dynamic and is growing extremely fast globally. According to Gartner the cloud computing market is going to raise to more than 383 bln$ by 2020.

The SONM platform should be fully operational by summer 2018. As of today the market cap of the $SNM token marks around 30 mln$. We should truly see some serious displacement here in the upcoming years and that leads of course to the question of investing.

The token and its current situation

The project issued their tokens with limited supply (331mln circulating) in June 2017 presenting a decentralized running Quake3 server as proof of concept and released a working alpha in August. Because of some problems during pre-ico and bad communication the price of the token dipped after hitting first exchanges (as common for projects without a commercial product). The resulting FUD led to a longer accumulation phase and delays in listings on bigger exchanges like Binance, Bittrex and Poloniex.

During the past months the team gathered a lot of well-known and trustworthy advisors like Dr. Paolo Tasca plus many more and continuously improved the communication and transparency towards the stakeholders. Until now they stick to every milestone of their roadmap and deliver 24/7 premium support on their telegram which is really promising.

After intense due-diligence, Binance listed the token recently— expect other exchanges in the upcoming months.

Passive income

The token holders of $SNM will have a share in the sales of computing power on the marketplace. It will be like gaining a percentage of eBay’s auction fees.
That means passive income for token holders and even more intrinsic value to the token.

Organizational structure

Unfortunately there are not as much insights available for the moment as I would like to see as a strategy consultant. Obviously the team follows an agile approach for developing the product. At the moment there are no insights on the framework but they are obviously scaling towards at least four teams for different parts of the product. This might not be optimal from an agile perspective but as I am not familiar enough with the scope they should have their reasons. Some public product backlog or a story mapping canvas could serve stake- and shareholder communication. But I am highly convinced that the team will also continue to improve on those topics.

Brief summary

Fog computing will disrupt whole cloud computing market (383bln US$ by 2020) — imagine x% share for fog.
What will Amazon Web Services do while we rent power of iPhones, watches and microwaves to the SONM?
Golem is not a real competitor — both aim for different purposes.
SONM aims for general computing — proven by smooth running CS:GO server on alpha.
Furthermore the alpha got patched already — next release of 0.3 is expected to happen in no time.
Every application fitting inside a docker container can be run right now! In the fog!
Token has multiple intrinsic values and fixed supply. Buyback of tokens by team will start Q3 2018.
Token is not a security according to SEC because token holders receive “only” parts of a marketplace fee.
Well-nown Dr. Paolo Tasca and Ilja Frankstein joined advisory board recently — great articles already published.

Always do your own research and proper due-diligence before investing!

The author works as a Senior Consultant in the Agile Business Transformation team of Cassini Consulting and is not connected to SONM despite being an investor.

The certified ScrumMaster and Product Owner primarily advises on all things agile and the digital transformation. Amongst other things, he is an Agile Coach who uses his knowledge and skills for companies of various sizes and industries. The author is primarily engaged in scaling agile in areas in and outside of software development and disruptive cross-sectional technologies such as blockchain and smart contracts. In his spare time, he runs a performance marketing company and invests in startups and companies around the globe.

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