Clouds on the horizon

In recent times the general public has been spoon-fed a great deal of words or phrases that have become familiar, while at the same time remaining somewhat vague and confusing.

The previous US administration gave us the famously abstract phrase 'war on terror,' while its successor prefers the more bureaucratic 'overseas contingency operations.'

The banking crisis has given us some absolute corkers. As if the intricacies and connotations of a full-blown recession weren't complex enough, now we suddenly find sentences like 'sub-prime housing bubble' and 'fiscal leverage' fed into our ears and out of our mouths. Even those clued-up on economic patterns must struggle with the doublespeak terms like 'quantitative easing.'

In the technology sector, phrases and concepts like 'the digital home' used to be banded around a lot, and it has to be said the practical meaning of these phrases became so vague as to encompass almost anything which has innards that have been on the hot end of a soldering iron.

The buzzword of the moment is 'Cloud Computing'. In its essence, it's quite a simple thing – and not necessarily very new. However the connotations for the mass adoption of all it represents are massive. Those in the know say it has potential to be the biggest technological advancement since the creation of the internet.

LAYMEN'S TERMS
Put as simply as possible, Cloud Computing is a system in which data is stored on the internet rather than your own computer. The most familiar form of this is web-based email services, such as Microsoft's Hotmail, which have been around for years now. Of course, the realities of it become more complex as you begin peeling away the layers, but that's the essence of it.

However there is a lack of clarity with the definition, which some cite as a possible barrier to the speed of mass adoption in the future.

At its core, the idea of storing information in one place as opposed to the other doesn't seem to lend itself too much to the idea of a revolution. But the unified processing capabilities of intrinsically linked PCs working under a stronger umbrella network promise new levels of – already unprecedented – worldwide communication. Tech firms and analysts claim the culmination of this will create a collective, almost hive-like group-mind effect, representing a genuinely ground breaking moment.

"The world's information infrastructure is on the brink of an extraordinary transformation," says Julian Friedman, emerging technologies specialist at IBM Cloud Labs and Emerging Technology Services division. "To IBM, Cloud Computing is much more than the normal evolution of a data centre. It is about the game changing – even life changing – applications that will emerge out of the cloud. The potential is limitless and IBM feels that it will be a key feature of tomorrows computing.

"Simply put, Cloud Computing means tapping into a vast network of computers scattered across the world that can be accessed from afar — by a laptop, a cell phone or whatever other device you may be holding in your hand today or tomorrow. When this network is tapped, the power of thousands, maybe even millions of computers can come together to tackle giant workloads in seconds. Think of millions of grains of sand coming together to create one giant sand castle when called upon."

THE HERE AND NOW
The language would sit comfortably within the pages of an outlandish sci-fi novel, but the technology is real. To continue the rhetoric, tech firms on the cutting edge of Cloud Computing's development are attempting to make the internet the computer itself. On a tangible and immediate level, access to personal files and programmes from any computer in the world would be the most obvious benefit. Meanwhile systems like the soon-to-be launched OnLive (see page 61) remotely stream the data required to run the latest, most advanced computer games. This means that you wouldn't need a high tech PC to run the next Crysis, as the computer itself is merely the receptacle of the information. Even the most basic network could have the information streamed to the screen, thus giving very low end machines access to the most advanced computerised functions. These initial uses of Cloud Computing are almost here, and are beginning to make waves.

"Cloud Computing is shaping up as the next big thing," a Google spokesperson tells us. "Until recently, we've stored our information on hard drives, and collaborated with colleagues via attachments and a confusing array of edits, highlights and multiple versions of the same document. Cloud Computing opens up new opportunities and new business models which retailers, just like anyone else, can take advantage of."

CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON
Silicon Valley giants such as IBM, Microsoft and Google are already putting megabucks behind their respective cloud computing programmes. IBM and Google in particular have collaborated on a series of 'virtual IT centres,' tasked with developing the tools to harness the Cloud and educate a new generation to its functions. While the current offerings of Cloud Computing generally centre around changes in the way files are shared and stored, the tangible future opportunities are much grander in scale. For example, IBM is currently in the process of setting up a network of super computers connected to medical records, creating a dynamic system that could identify illnesses in real time.

But it's not just the top end technology that will be altered by the processes of Cloud Computing. If the technology is to become anywhere near as popular and pervasive as many experts think, then the whole industry, from the ground level up, can expect to have its world turned on its axis. "We believe that Cloud Computing is great news for the industry as a whole and, coupled with the strength and power of the PC, opens up a whole set of possibilities," says Ian Moulster, Microsoft's product manager for Cloud Computing.

"We certainly believe this is better for the consumer, in that they have more choice regarding the kind of applications that are becoming available."

This touches on another interesting aspect of how this technology is emerging – the degree of power to which consumers have over the development of trends in the modern era. The virtual community of internet users has laid the groundwork for this, and some think the true evolution of it will be dictated by the populist ebbs and flows of the consumer.

"This is poised to be one of the most significant changes ever in how the world accesses information and services; this change is not being driven by technology companies or CEOs of large corporations, but by consumers – a new type of consumer who craves instant access to information," continues IBM's Friedman.

OBSTACLES
The whole idea represents a massive jump in the amount of information flying about the globe – and many claim the global data infrastructure is practically at breaking point already. There are concerted measures in place by hardware manufacturers and server experts to update the globe's data infrastructure, but this is no small task. Others claim the 'distrust' of giving up control to a hive-like, group computer will prove a significant obstacle – at least for older generations.

"I think there are still concerns about the resiliency and reliability of Cloud Computing," says Alastair Edwards, senior analyst at research firm Canalys. "This means it will be some time before consumers trust all their data to the Cloud. I suspect most will still want to keep at least some data locally (although the younger 'Facebook generation' may be more comfortable to do this). But the adoption of Cloud Computing will also influence device usage, as we have seen with the emergence of netbooks."

Things like Microsoft's Azure and Google Apps are the tip of the iceburg with the technology, but they are beginning to loom larger. The true potential of the ideas behind Cloud Computing will unravel in the years to come. A lot of very rich and powerful companies are leveraging their huge wealth and influence behind some of the grander schemes of the future, which have the potential to change every facet of the industry – including the way the planet lives. Many are calling Cloud Computing a revolution – and it's never too early to start planning for one of those.

THE SKY'S THE LIMIT FOR THE BIG THREE
Google, IBM and Microsoft are probably the three companies most responsible for pushing the idea of Cloud Computing forward at the moment. Here are what specific initiates they’re putting in place...

Google
Owning the world’s biggest search engine and being a purely web-based entity, Google is arguably the best placed firm to take advantage of Cloud Computing concepts. Currently, the firm’s main offering is Google Apps which is a range of software operating entirely online, and is pitched as a rival to Microsoft’s market leading Office brand. Despite being a web-based set of programmes, there are opportunities for bricks and mortar retail to take advantage of this.

IBM
One of the PC industry’s old guard, IBM is investing heavily in re-decking data centres across the world, which will be required to support any huge boost in internet traffic. As well as develop the physical infrastructure of mass servers propping up the internet, IBM has also been working closely with Google on projects such as ‘virtual IT labs’ based on Cloud Computing models, tasked with developing new open source and ‘massively parallel’ software that will help mould the future of the internet.

Microsoft
As the world’s biggest software firm, Microsoft is in a strong position to leverage its weight into new areas. The flagship of its cloud computing operations is the Azure Services Platform, which covers more familiar brands such as Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail. The company is involved in a number of ongoing projects to implement its market dominating range of software and operating systems into a Cloud Computing format. You can expect to see a great deal of initiatives from this firm.

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