Can David Thodey escape his Big Blue shadow?

But how galling, it must have been for the Telstra chief executive, to sit there on stage and listen as IBM Australia's current leader, Andrew Stevens, spoke in full about the company's own plans to capitalise on the growing cloud computing revolution the one which Telstra so desperately wants to conquer.

What Thodey's reaction must have been

One wonders just what Thodey's reaction must have been, with Telstra likely being IBM's biggest customer in Australia, as Stevens explained how IBM wasn't afraid to "cannibalise" its existing business in order to focus on cloud.

That morning, Telstra had boasted that it had spoken to no less than 160 Australian organisations about their cloud computing strategy. What at the time, must Thodey have thought, sharing the stage with Stevens, when the IBM chief noted Big Blue had had some 2,000 cloud computing engagements located around the globe?

The Telstra chief executive's situation this week

The Telstra chief executive's situation this week, which saw him caught between two worlds, between two companies who each compete with each other but are each other's major local clients, one Australia's biggest traditional research company, and one Australia's biggest telco, must have weighed heavily on his mind.