Cloud computing has quickly become a well known celebrity in the world of budding next generation technologies. The technology is certainly very exciting, & promises to open a whole new world of opportunities. I am just writing this post to discuss some consumer centric ideas which to me sound enticing.
The whole idea is actually not all that complicated. In very simple terms, it just refers to accessing data, software applications & computing resources through the network (or the CLOUD..) Now, just imagine the possibilities that will open up once you combine the high speed 4G network & cloud computing! All your files, music, videos & pictures will be at your fingertips no matter which device you use, & no matter which part of the world you are in (As long as you have access to the network). I guess this is already true for photos through services like picasa, but what I am saying has much broader application. Imagine, never having to worry about a lost Ipod / flash drive, damaged hard disk, & broken computer! Imagine, your ‘cloud connected’ car playing the same playlist that you were listening to at home the night before. The DVR could directly record your favorite shows on the network, & you could literally watch them in HD on any portable device while running on treadmill @gym 100s of miles away….
Ease of access is just one aspect of cloud computing. The technology has the potential to revolutionize each & every electronic device, whether it is a smartphone, or a desktop computer. The devices as they exist today require their own ‘brain’ to process the input/output functions & numerous other computations. If the ‘brain’ of these devices is shifted to the cloud, imagine what it’ll do to the devices. The laptop for example will just have a screen, keyboard & mouse, & minimal hardware to interact with the network. The hard-disk, the processor, & may be even the cooling fan would disappear. It will weigh less than a pound, cost 100 dollars & switch-on in an instant & still be a hundred times faster as compared to the computers today.
To get an idea of the increased speed & efficiency, just try searching for an email in MS Outlook (with the indexing feature turned off) & then compare it with the time it takes to search for the same email using a web client…the results will be obvious.
While all this sounds good & charming, it raises some interesting questions as well. What happens if suddenly the network goes down, or you end up in a place where you simply don’t have internet access …? One moment you are flying @ the speed of light, & then suddenly you crash in to the stone age…that’s what it will be like! Success of cloud computing will essentially be dependent on presence of high speed reliable networks. Thanks to my work at Sprint, I have seen one such network in action..the Wimax network. I am sure the LTE network will be the same as well.
I am very excited about cloud computing. Are you?
DISCLAIMER: This post contains forward looking statements about technologies that are still in different stages of development. While these ideas appeal to the common sense at the moment, history has plenty of examples that show just how wrong some of these statements turn out to be ( See here: http://tech.msn.com/news/articlepcw.aspx?cp-documentid=16829041) . My suggestion is, don’t put a leash on your imagination, develop whatever appeals to reason & then just let demand & supply rule the day!
Sources:
http://www.hyperic.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/question-cloud.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg
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