Psst….did you know you were cloud computing? What? You didn’t mean to? Don’t worry…you’ll be ok. In fact, you’ve probably been doing a lot of cloud computing and didn’t even realize it.
Do you use Gmail, Yahoo email or another web-based email service? What about Picasa, Flickr or another online photo-sharing service? Netflix? How about salesforce.com or Zoho CRM at work? Is your company using Google Apps or Windows 365 online for email, document processing, and collaboration or Microsoft SkyDrive for online document sharing? If you answered yes to any of these, you were already cloud computing before you read this article.
I recently put a training course together on cloud computing for enterprise account reps at a large US Telco. While developing the course, I was surprised how many services / applications / companies now promote themselves as cloud-based. Companies that used to be ‘hosting providers’ or ‘managed services providers’ were now ‘cloud computing companies’. As I dug into it further, it quickly became apparent that there were almost as many definitions of cloud computing as there were people defining it.
At its simplest, think of cloud computing as internet-based software, servers, or storage that you use on a subscription basis (or for free) rather than owning and managing these computing resources directly in your home or enterprise. You can generally access these services from wherever you are - using the web-browser or an installed client on any computer, smartphone, tablet or other internet-capable device. Individuals and businesses benefit by sharing the cost of equipment and management of the IT resources with other users.
Consumers like you and me get access to lots of great services and software programs without having to actually buy, install and maintain them. There are no software upgrades to worry about, no running out of disk space, no worrying about porting applications from one computer to another; in fact, you don’t even need your own computer for many services. Sure, there are some drawbacks – like needing an internet connection to use the services and in certain cases concerns over security and privacy. For most people, these concerns are outweighed by ease of use, lack of required maintenance or computer skills, and access to online forums to share in the collective intelligence of the user community.
Taking advantage of cloud-based storage, where your data is regularly backed up and in a protected data center is rapidly gaining popularity. I know many people (and businesses) that use Carbonite or Mozy for automatic remote backup of their computers so they don’t have to do it themselves on local backup drives. Others now use services like MobileMe as their desktop or primary hard drive in the cloud.
Cloud computing services have been enthusiastically embraced by the non-profit sector. Schools, faith-based organizations, community groups and charitable organizations can cost-effectively manage budgets, documentation, internal communications, develop and maintain organization web-sites, foster community outreach, and coordinate donor and volunteer efforts all through various cloud-based services such as Google Apps for Non-Profits, Microsoft SkyDrive, QuickBooks, DonorPerfect, SurveyMonkey, SchoolReach and MySignUp.
Enterprises of all sizes are also adopting cloud computing - to reduce their day-to-day IT costs, to improve employee productivity, and to gain access to computing resources they may otherwise not be able to afford or manage themselves. Enterprise cloud computing services such as Microsoft 365, salesforce.com and Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud Compute) allow enterprises to remotely configure and manage services for their employees and to quickly develop and launch services for their consumers that can rapidly scale as usage grows. They do so with subscription fees that are deterministic and with availability and performance governed by Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
Small businesses in particular can benefit by quickly establishing a professional IT infrastructure at a low entry cost and with predictable ongoing fees.
What’s the Mobile Perspective on Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a great enabler of mobility – no longer are individuals tied to physical locations or specific computing platforms. Individuals, enterprises and organizations can leverage Cloud Computing services to cost-effectively improve productivity, communication, and accessibility.
At the same time, a new challenge for cloud computing providers arises from the plethora of internet-connected mobile devices. The increased processing power, growing screen sizes and graphics capabilities available on the latest iOS and Android-powered smartphones and tablets - combined with the growing ubiquity of Wi-Fi networks and faster mobile operator data networks raises user expectations.
Ideally, users should be as productive and effective from mobile devices as from desktop or laptop computers but with a user experience tailored to their mobile context. Mobile device screens aren’t as big, user inputs range from full physical or touch screen keyboards to stylus, trackball, and older numeric keypads. Data speeds and network coverage can vary significantly as users move around. Being ‘mobile’, users also need to be able to accomplish tasks quickly and if necessary in an interrupt-driven manner as they walk, change locations, navigate airports, or ride on public transportation.
For cloud computing service providers, this means that simply taking the full web-browser experience and piping it down to a mobile browser is not sufficient. They need to focus on mobile-enabling those services and tasks that can be reasonably accessed or accomplished from mobile devices and with a user experience that is optimized to the capabilities of each individual’s mobile device.
Services should be simple and intuitive to use, with a minimum amount of scrolling, zooming, pinching, and data entry and without being cluttered by features or information likely to be irrelevant to mobile users. Phone features such as geo-location, contacts, caching, and click-to-call should be leveraged where they enhance or simplify the user experience. At the same time, the mobile version of services should strive to attain a familiarity with the web version and place-shifting (starting a task on one environment and continuing or completing it on another) should be supported whenever possible.
There are many mobile solution providers out there with technologies to optimize mobile user experience such as New Media Innovation and MobileAware. Organizations may need to look beyond the cloud to ensure an appropriate mobile strategy for access to their services and information.
So are you cloud computing now, and is it mobile optimized?
Yes, you are. Mobile Perspectives blog is hosted on Blogger. I post articles from my web browser, by sending emails from my Gmail account, or by sending text messages from my iPhone. You may have accessed the blog from my website (which is hosted on Google Sites), by clicking a link in a Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn post or as a result of a Google search. If you are reading this from a mobile device, I hope you are reading it on Mobile Perspectives’ mobile website (which is hosted on Amazon EC2 servers) where it was pulled in via RSS feed from Blogger and optimized for mobile device viewing using technology from our partner New Media Innovation. Unfortunately, Blogger itself has not been mobile-optimized! Not yet anyway.
As you can see, my head is clearly in the cloud; lucky for me, you’re right there with me!
Comments below, email me at todd@mobile-perspectives.com or visit Mobile Perspectives on the web at http://www.mobile-perspectives.com/
