The Cloud
The cloud is such a big deal that Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch, which charts its rise, likens it to the creation of the national grid: “What electricity brought to mechanical power, the cloud is doing to information technology.” For a big idea, the cloud is — fortunately — remarkably simple. It means that the electronic information we want is stored and processed on computers somewhere else — in the cloud — and delivered to us where, when and how we need it.
Today, most of us use electronic devices with closed systems. Each device creates and stores certain types of information. We store Word documents and spreadsheets on our laptop and PC, contacts and e-mails on our mobile, TV and video on our television and set-top box, and music on our iPod. The cloud reverses that model. Cloud-based devices create and store nothing. They are merely connecting devices that draw down the information we need. Computing best illustrates the shift. In the cloud, the internet becomes our operating system. We use online software that runs in our browser to create the files we need. The files are stored in remote data centres.
Using the internet to access the information we need is, of course, not new. Facebook, YouTube, Hotmail, Flickr and Spotify already demonstrate the huge benefits of having our stuff “out there”. What is new is the way that hi-tech companies are rushing to exploit the digitisation of almost all information and a world blanketed with Wi-Fi to create complete, easily accessible online information systems. The “always on, always there” revolution is such big news that the leading Silicon Valley investor George Zachary describes it as “the new dotcom”.
Why are the technorati so excited? The cloud offers dramatic, practical benefits. We can get the “stuff” we need, no matter where we are or what device we’re using because every device with an internet connection is “ours”. As Randall Stross, the author of Planet Google, puts it: “The headaches we’ve wrestled with in the past, for example, ‘I edited that document at the office but I didn’t bring a copy home with me’, will disappear.” Moreover, we never need to buy any software updates because these are tested and constantly sprinkled into the cloud by operators. There are no licence fees to pay. Best of all, we never have to worry about losing our laptop or mobile phone or backing up their contents because no important data is stored on the devices.