Forrester cloud computing expert James Staten recently published 10 Cloud Predictions For 2013 with contributions from nine other analysts, including myself. The prediction that is near and dear to my heart is #10: "Developers will awaken to: development isn't all that different in the cloud," That's right, it ain't different. Not much anyway. Sure. It can be single-click-easy to provision infrastructure, spin up an application platform stack, and deploy your code. Cloud is great for developers. And Forrester's cloud developer survey shows that the majority of programming languages, frameworks, and development methodologies used for enterprise application development are also used in the cloud.

Forget Programming Language Charlatans

Forget the vendors and programming language charlatans that want you to think the cloud development is different. You already have the skills and design sensibility to make it work. In some cases, you may have to learn some new APIs just like you have had to for years. As James aptly points out in the post: "What's different isn't the coding but the services orientation and the need to configure the application to provide its own availability and performance. And, frankly this isn't all that new either. Developers had to worry about these aspects with websites since 2000." The best cloud vendors make your life easier, not different.

Mobile App Is A Great First Cloud App

Got a great idea for killer mobile app to develop on the side? Perfect cloud use case. Develop your mobile client.  Deploy your back end in the language of your choice on Amazon EC2, or use a mobile-back-end-as-a-service (mBaaS) such as Parse.com that offers ready-made services via simple REST APIs.

The bottom line: You've got cloud skills already. Use them.