From Gadgets to Cloud

There's only one thing I want to start my second blog post with. A note of thanks to all the people who read my first attempt at blogging and gave their valuable feedback. This will be the drive which will keep me going in the future and push me to put in some content which:

1 - is not a test of your brain's computing power.

2 - lets you take something with you.

3 - touches the non-machine parts of our body.

Coming back to talking about the technology beast and how it has been performing in the last few decades or maybe a century. The evolution, I must say (and everyone would agree), has been tremendous. Even if we take the friendly neighborhood washing machine or the so called Idiot Box, the way these gadgets have transformed our lives is remarkable. Ah, I think you probably do not think of a washing machine or Television as a gadget. Well, they sure are gadgets of their time even though these have been a given for some of us.

So, the point is that today's gadgets may or may not become tomorrow's necessities. Why did I say may not? Well, ever heard of a thing called Soda Maker. I know this poor thing was a rage when it came in the market but now no one even wants to acknowledge that they had one at any point of time. With all due respect to the people who made it, it has failed miserably in becoming a necessity.

After all this chit chat about gadgets and a bit of their lifecycle, let me take you to an altogether different realm. Assume that if you want to play a game, you really do not need to buy a gaming console. You can order this as a service on the internet and play online. It is like you rented a gaming console online for an hour and after you are through, someone else can rent it. Of course, you have requirements at your side of the computing device too but they are really nothing as compared to the requirement of having a gaming console with you.

Does this sound exciting, boring, foolish or anything else? Well, however it may sound it is happening Now. This has started its course mainly from the businesses where any organization would be able to buy processing power online on the fly to - lets say, do some word processing, use MS Excel like software on web, be able to manage workflows or even host their intranets on such secure platforms on the web.

Where would all this come from? How would such services be available to me? Does this mean I really shouldn't buy a gaming console? Aaaah, too many questions but all can be answered by one word - CLOUD. Some of you may have started thinking of me as someone needing psychiatric help by now. How in the world can a cloud in the sky be able to give me MS excel or word proc software? And then, this means when there are no clouds, I get no service??? All I can say is - Rest your brain; the answers are coming.

This is how I wanted to talk about Cloud Computing. Theoretically, cloud computing refers to the possibility of having on the fly availability of computing resources, using competent networks, which removes the need to have all the computational resources on a user's computer and moves the complex part to a entity which has a cute name -  the cloud.

Now, this cute thing is actually a mammoth for the service providers who host it for you or your business. But who cares, it is their baby. I only need my gaming

experience ready when I order it or my address book and calendar managed with SMS alerts on my phone whenever I have an urgent meeting or need to take my

kids to the Zoo (you see, we are touching on humane things. Cloud should enable you to do that as well if it can have that cute a name. isn’t it?)

When we say who cares, it might sound rude but that is the way it is supposed to be now friends. Now lets look at the things which this cute cloud can deliver. You must have had a situation when your phone (another gadget) crashed and you loose your contacts. Phew, what to do now? ask people to send their numbers to you over every possible online or mobile medium. But still not sure how much of the phonebook you can get back by this method. What’s the next best thing we can do, backup our phone. That's correct. But who cares to back it up at a regular interval. I get reminded to take my phone's backup whenever I see someone begging his/her friends to mail their contact numbers on a Social Networking site. Well, that’s another way but it is not a foolproof one for sure.

So, the cute cloud should be able to track these phone backups and even get them completed on scheduled time without you even knowing about it (don’t worry, it will tell you if you choose to know). You can easily expect it to provide you with a simple horoscope or Sudoku software on demand as well as look for complex software and network services like single point communication medium or a security framework and service (UCaaS, SaaS - yeah these are the buzzwords used by business people).

Now, we can talk about more stuff to expect from the cute cloud but I would like to know from you. Yes, please feel free to pour in your imagination and tell me about what all would you like the cloud to be able to deliver. So, these things can make your life easier or your business easier. Note that when your business becomes streamlined, your life becomes easier and you will have more time to do what??? The Humane things we talked about. So, please choose your medium for providing me these thoughts. I would then do a post receipt analysis of your needs and try to categorize them as "Doable/Not Doable/Can be looked at" by the cute cloud.

I think we will have more things about the cloud for the next post (I'm counting on your inputs). So, we continue the cloud talk in the next post. Meanwhile, keep the suggestions, bouquets and brickbats pouring in as comments.

Happy Reading and Keep Up With Technology

Cheers

N E O