The future looks cloudy...
oh my...
Cloud computing. Predicting weather is tricky enough, predicting how technology can behave is an even dicier proposition. Whether one is a PC or Mac user, you have probably heard about the trials and tribulations of the rollout of MobileMe. I think Apple has been a bit humbled by its missteps, offering formal apologies and every other day updates on the service via an Apple blogger. This rather rocky public meltdown is a probably a good time to bring up cloud computing in general and why its important. Technology Review has an interesting article worth reading as it touches on issues with cloud computing and how this may affect those who depend on it. Cloud computing is not necessarily new, but it is a fairly new concept to the public at large. The TR article gives a nice simple summary of the concept...
Cloud computing has been touted as a potential tool for everything from improving business infrastructure to helping consumers keep tabs on their contacts. Storing data in the "cloud" of the Internet rather than locally allows users to access that information anywhere and at any time.
The big hitch with cloud computing is connectivity, and the quality of the connection in particular. What the whole MobileMe mess brings to light is that if one is computing in the cloud, whether it is just to sync contacts or actually using webapps such as Google Docs or Google Spreadsheets, if your connection goes down or is unreasonably slow, you are dead in the water in terms of your work. And that just is not acceptable for many users. This singular dependency is what makes the idea a little unnerving. This and the fact that most of your data will reside on servers across the globe and not on your hard drive sitting on your desk. Google's solution to the cloud issues is found in their Google Gears (Firefox only on Macs) technology which they rolled out over a year ago. The idea is that one can still use the webapps offline on a local machine and then sync it to the cloud when you get back online. As the IT article points, out, this is probably the way forward, but we are not quite there yet. Also worth mentioning is Adobe AIR who is also throwing their hat in the ring with this web app development environment.
Associated with cloud computing is the idea of pushing data to a user when it becomes available. Blackberry users are the poster children for the push movement and Apple is trying to join their ranks by offering "push" solutions with MobileMe. However, they have abandoned using the word "push" specifically because of the various problems with MobileMe (lost emails, sluggish performance, etc.). They do still have the cloud in the graphic design for the service however. Pushing email is one thing, pushing lots of other data can be quite another issue. While many of us have come to accept broadband Internet connections, there are still many, many people who do not have fast connections or 24/7 connections. This can especially true in schools. I believe cloud computing is here to stay and it will become more prevalent, especially as the world becomes more wired with faster Internet connections. It is a new way of working and interacting with information. What we are seeing now are the hiccups (or in Apple's case a belch) associated with implementing and adopting new technologies. We will get there one way or another via Google Gears, Adobe AIR, MobileMe, Research in Motion (BlackBerry) or some other technology yet to be unleashed. But one thing is for certain. It will indeed be a push.
Keene Haywood (University of Texas@Austin - DIIA)
