CAN WE GET OUR HEADS INTO THE CLOUD?

On flights I always grab a couple of trade rags to take with me to catch up on the industry goss. I picked up a new one called Nett which caught my eye with an interesting article about Google v Microsoft v Yahoo!

http://nett.com.au/marketing/search/google-vs-microsoft-vs-yahoo-/129.html

The content of the article wasn't particularly what interested me but it was the answers given when asked about the future of the internet and what each player was doing. Where Microsoft and Yahoo! seemed to say things on improved ranking models and improved relevancy engines which is all well and good but when asked about innovation there just doesn't seem to be anything of note in their future.

Google on the other hand has continually intrigued me with the notion of Cloud Computing. This theory is that in the future all the computing work will be done on the other end of your internet connection. I was always quite skeptical of this theory as are most of the people I have discussed it with. However the longer I sat back on my flight and thought it through it is inevitable that this is where we will go.

Online storage and server side application hosting is already becoming commonplace on the Internet. Google Docs is the classic example of this. When I started using it it felt clunky, basic and slow. No match for the power and complexity of Microsoft Office. Now however it has infiltrated its way into becoming an integral part of my everyday workflow.

The benefits are I can share and even work simultaneously on the same document with a colleague. You even see the letter changing on screen! Also you never lose anything, files are listed in sequence like an inbox and can be elegantly organised. They can be styled and printed. It might not be as quick as doing things offline but eventually you don't notice.

It is this usage that started me with internal questions like why can't I have the same experience with programs like Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. The current answer is bandwidth. I am already used to accessing my work server at home using AFP, I can open a 40MB photoshop file in seconds and re-save it in a little longer so bandwidth is not necessarily the issue, it certainly is inconvenient but compared to when I first started using computers it is still lightening.

We are on the cusp of the point where the internet infrastructure will be powerful enough to cope with the real possibilities of powerful Cloud side applications and file transfer.

Maybe in the future files will be kept alongside applications so that transfer will not be necessary. I see a future where we do not need powerful processors on board our computers, computers in fact will become like the dumb terminals of old and will be marketed and sold for next to nothing based on their brand and aesthetics. I imagine a touch screen computing device as thick as the screen on my MacBook.

We will not purchase software like we do now, we will simply pay a monthly fee to access Photoshop or Ableton Live. I for one as a small business owner would welcome this. Software licenses are a big part of the outlay in our business and I would much rather pay a small monthly fee for the life of the business than the exorbitant licensing and registration fees we currently pay up front.

I had a fairly heated discussion with my father in law the other night on the subject. He is an accomplished computer engineer and we have always enjoyed discussions on computer philosophy. He however disagreed with me on this and believes that peoples egos will always want them to "own" the software and their fear will always lead them to store files locally.

I found this to be a fairly common opinion as I asked other people what they though of the concept. I think that it is all in the perception. Eventually convenience will outweigh the fear of the technology. The same way people hang onto the concept of ownership of digital media. Apple made their entire music philosophy based around this preconception but now after years it has shifted and their is discussion of them releasing a monthly payment option.

The future is inevitable, Cloud computing must be the way forward. With most of Gen X and none of Gen Y able to own anything, they are getting used to the idea that they don't need to to own anything. Life is just cash-flow, everything is leased, rented and borrowed to give individuals the maximum possible lifestyle enjoyment that their income allows. This is the same fact that will make Cloud computing a reality. You just buy the software time when you need it.

posted by Brad Down at 11/30/2007 01:04:00 PM