The New ‘Vapor Ware’

Cloud computing isn't new. Indeed, anyone who first signed up for AOL mail almost two decades ago was working “in the cloud.” Referred to by many names over the years — hosted applications, Web- or Internet-based systems, and most recently, Software as a Service — in simple terms, cloud-based systems are those that are hosted at a remote location (which can be a vendor server, for example) and accessed via the Internet.

Generally, users are charged a subscription fee and only pay for the time they're using the application, in the same way that consumers pay for utilities.

Regardless of what we call it, the use of cloud-based applications, and the subsequent availability of new ones, has increased tremendously over the past couple of years, as a result of broadband Internet connections that are now commonplace among most businesses, as well as the emergence of broadband wireless Internet. (Last year, for example, I replaced my landline broadband cable with a 4G wireless USB modem that's just as fast, except I can take it anywhere.)

And it's this last realm of technology — wireless broadband — that has really secured cloud-based systems' place in the IT world. The increased use of mobile technology in the workplace is driving the increased use of cloud-based systems, as these applications don't need to be stored locally on a user's mobile device.

To wit: According the fourth Future of the Internet survey published June 2011 by Elon University and the Pew Internet & American Life Project, most technology experts and stakeholders expect that by 2020, most people will access software applications online, and share and access information through the use of remote server networks, rather than depending primarily on tools and information housed on their individual personal computers. They say that cloud computing will become more dominant than the desktop in the next decade.

Wireless broadband has really secured cloud-based systems' place in the IT world.

“By 2020, most people won't do their work with software running on a general-purpose PC. Instead, they will work in Internet-based applications such as Google Docs, and in applications run from smartphones,” say Elon's Janna Quitney Anderson and Pew's Lee Rainie, who co-authored the report. “Aspiring application developers will develop for smartphone vendors and companies that provide Internet-based applications, because most innovative work will be done in that domain, instead of designing applications that run on a PC operating system.”

Most of the experts noted that people want to be able to use many different devices to access data and applications, and some referred to a future featuring many more different types of networked appliances.

We're already seeing examples of this as retailers reach into the cloud to pull reports and scan data, or, as you'll see in the Piggly Wiggly story in this issue, identifying front end “sweethearting” at the checkout via video.

In fact, it seems that the only limitations to cloud-based technology aren't from the applications themselves, but rather those posed by our wireless carriers in terms of connectivity — and we all know what a problem those can be! PG