Past, Present and Future: Cloud Computing in Three Minutes Perhaps the most interesting thing about the cloud is just how fluffy it really is. Recent news indicates that it has finally gone mainsteam. Yet at the same time, most people are still not quite clear on what the cloud really is. To get a better understanding, here’s a three-minute summary of where the clouds came from and where they are heading. Looking at the roots of the cloud computing movement, it all really started in the late ‘90s when companies with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business model started surfacing. Perhaps the most well known pioneer is Salesforce.com,
cloud computing movement
Sony Wins Cloud Gaming Boost From Gaikai On July 2, Sony Computer Entertainment (of PlayStation fame) made a delicious tech-forward coup sure to find its virtual entertainment rivals Samsung and LG salivating with envy: the acquisition of Gaikai, the foremost cloud gaming company worldwide. Gaikai literally translates as “an open ocean” in Japanese. That definition conjures images of vast expanses inviting curious exploration — the same vibrant point of view that spearheaded the cloud computing movement, and that is spurring rapid concomitant change in the video game community via the cloud as well. Sony Computer Entertainment, or SCE, financed this
Cloud Can Do Anything – But Can It Do Better? Forbes Magazine, typically an exponent of the cloud computing movement, recently questioned the trend in an article whose title goes straight for the jugular. Such a critical consideration of cloud and its import is in due order. As the piece points out, the geeks and techies of the world hold the real key to cloud computing, its history, and its ethos. Businesses and the general public have received at best, so far, a facsimile of this key — a feeling of connection to and usefulness of cloud, without responsibility for
The Government and the Cloud: Defining the Relationship They say change comes slowly or not at all. The cloud computing movement is thankfully maintaining a slow crawl over the powers-that-be in our governments at every level: local, state, national, even international. (But let’s save the complex, meaty discussion of the global cloud for another piece.) Although practically all of us are quite aware of the influence cloud exerts over the Internet-savvy members of our communities — that is to say, “everybody” — the government still hesitates to truly engage with the growing technological power. True, our leaders and their processes
Changes Coming to Online Storage One of the big cloud technologies to filter down to the consumer level in the past year has been online storage. Services like Dropbox are adding thousands of members a day. Even Apple, after two previous failed attempts, seems to have found a successful online storage product in iCloud. Like other areas of the cloud, though, online storage is still maturing. Here are some of the significant changes we’re likely to see in the online storage industry over the next few years: Increased value-added services for small and medium-sized businesses. We’re already starting to see
