iCloud may not be the next phase in Cloud technology, but it's the next step
My thoughts on Apple's iCloud announcement, as posted on the Cognito blog.
At a Cloud Computing seminar I attended earlier this year, I was surprised when one of the panelists - invited for his expert opinion on Cloud technologies - announced that not only did he have no idea why he was on the panel but that the thought the Cloud was an absolutely fad and waste of time. "I've read three books on the subject!" was what I recall him saying.
To me - and I've said this before - the Cloud is that avenue of technology that finally allows the actual technology to get out of the way of the user experience. Note that I'm not saying that it wasn't possible before, or that the Cloud is the answer to *everything*.
Yesterday's iCloud announcement has, and will, cause some stir. Over the air syncing of all the things that matter - pictures, documents, applications and even music - using Apple's own data centers, for - and I think this is really important - free. Apple is paving the way for taking Cloud technology to the masses, and all those who wouldn't stop talking about how scary the cloud is. Free stops a lot of people from asking questions. Often, when speaking to customers about the fact that a lot of our technology offerings are based in the Cloud, you can already see that they've shown you the door. Talking to them about the benefits of the Cloud - the ease of use, availability from anywhere - doesn't seem to change their minds, until they hear the words, "unlimited storage", as is the case for email archiving in the cloud. Suddenly it sounds more interesting.
