“In his new book “The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google,” computer industry writer and former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review Nicholas G. Carr discusses the changes he sees in the future of computing. One of the more dramatic changes is a shift to cloud computing — where applications and files are stored on a large, centralized supercomputer or network. The end user accesses his or her files using computers that are more streamlined but less sophisticated than today’s typical machines,” Chris Pollette writes for Howstuffworks.
“On October 17, 2007, Carr took the idea a step further in a posting on his Rough Type blog. He called out two hot technology companies, Google and Apple, and said they were on the verge of a partnership in which Apple would make an inexpensive piece of hardware users could carry around. This would leverage the computing power of the vast data centers Google has been building to hold the applications and the data for millions of users,” Pollette writes.
Pollette asks, “Could a Google/Apple team make cloud computing a widespread phenomenon? And if they move forward, what’s in it for Google and Apple? The biggest question of all: If they build the cloud computer, will anyone use it?”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Buffalo2001” for the heads up.]
Ummmm… .huh?
If they build the cloud computer, will anyone use it?
No.
If this has a wisp of truth, it could be quite cirrus. And adding those two together currently might have a cumulus effect. In dew time.
I feel more comfortagle knowing all my personal data is encrupted and residingon the hard drive in my laptop/living room, not somehwere on someone else’s hard drive.
Am I being old fashioned / paranoid here?
Just what I want. All my files sitting in some Google warehouse where the bad guys can find it. Not secure; not secure enough; never will be secure enough for most people let alone corporations or the government. Too much all knowing big brother.
I personally hope this prediction fails to come true. I don’t like the idea of not actually having my applications local as sometimes network is unavailable, other times it can be very, very slow… even on our company’s T1. Not to mention that the work I do is very, very processor and memory intensive and the thought of computers becoming ‘streamlined’ makes me uncomfortable, to say the least.
Skynet, anyone?
My thoughts exactly!
Cloud computing – they want to reign on your poor raid?
Sounds like the Commlocks on Moonbase Alpha.
Television didn’t supplant movies, which did not eliminate books. I’m sure the same is true here. Cloud computing, if it comes to pass, will just supplement what is here.
I’m still in bit of a fog about cloud computing. It’s hard to imagine what will precipitate from the latest technological advances. I’ll hail any new tools that will make my job easier. The solution just has to be robust — nothing flakey.
So…he thinks up crap and later predicts some one will excreet it. Ok….
I PREDICT THAT BILL GATES WILL COME OUT OF THE CLOSET AND DECLARE BALMER AS HIS VERY *VERY* BEST BUDDY.
I hope this works!
i think a lot of you are looking at this wrong. You’re saying “my personal files won’t be secure.” so you keep those files on your own personal external hard drive, but things that you don’t need to be triple fortified and such, you keep on the cloud, and for things that are replaceable, google, or whoever, will replace them in the event of a data loss. I think it makes a lot of sense, but streaming needs to get better for certain aspects of it to really work
To Ampar:
The outlook on cloud computing is foggy, but the concept has potential of stratospheric proportions to precipitate a torrential downpour of spinoffs.
“I’m still in bit of a fog about cloud computing.”
It sounds like vaporware.
I remember Apple’s OpenDoc and its possibility with Larry Ellison’s network computers…does that make me old? The idea was cool way back then, but the bandwidth couldn’t keep up…today is a different story. I would pay $5 bucks to rent Photoshop for a day, but I won’t go out and buy the $500 version like I did for OS 9.
The team that finally makes cloud computing affordable, manageable, and practical can expect thunderous applause.
He’s living in the clouds – clouds of dope smoke.
It won’t succeed either, but there will always be a group of technology companies hoping to make it work. It’s like renting music: the provider makes a killing while the user wastes their money. That’s why neither will go away, no matter how poorly they do in the market.
Sounds like the “network computer” that Oracle was pushing, back in the 90’s. The difference now is wireless and small size of computing devices. In that new context, I can see how it would be useful to put data “in the cloud” (you can do that now). However, I don’t see an advantage (at least to the user) in off-loading everyday applications. The relatively small amount of local storage saved will be offset by disadvantages. And if you are talking about web-based apps, you can do that now.
So what’s the big deal here. The desirable aspects of “cloud computing” are already here and will continue to evolve and improve. The undesirable aspects will never materialize.
Maybe, what he is trying to suggest/accomplish is not a replacement (outright atleast) of the Desktops, but rather enabling the handheld devices with (close to) desktop grade computing power. In other words, running SolidWorks or even Excel on iPhone would be more practical if it were to run from a central server.
Plus, it may not be up to the consumer, as they can be coerced by the giant application developers by way of cost and security incentives. You no longer own a software, you license it, packaging of your combined phone bill, for example.
Google, M$ et al, will then tout these cloud servers as more secure and hacker proof than your own boxes at home. No more crashes, no more virus (doubtful), easy update/bug fix roll outs, but more importantly for the developers at least, no more piracy.
Like most of you who raised concern here, I am also not comfortable with this model. However, just like my concerns w.r.t. widespread usage of GM food, I suspect, consumer reservations are prone to miscarry against /convenience/.
KingMel: ” . . . a torrential downpour of spinoffs.”
But too much pressure and they’ll blow it? Are they working from a draft?
This was called Network Computing Architecture or NCA back in 1997. It was an initiative sponsored by Netscape, Oracle, IBM and Sun. It’s pretty much the same idea: Thin clients and a strong, fast network.
I like the idea, but we still need bandwidth.
who cares? i want my 10.5.2 and TV Take 2 updates!