I have anticipated cloud computing since my high school (granted, it wasn’t that long ago) days, but then again, I have also anticipated quantum computing since my high school days, so the closeness of the realization of either wasn’t too clear for folks like us. As opposed to quantum computing, which basically requires different physics, cloud computing is a simple and elegant concept – to obtain, use, and store all work and applications through the network instead of local storage. The pains of losing anything from an unsaved file to a corrupt hard drive can mean life and death in the age of information. “My computer crashed” somehow as unacceptable an excuse as “My dog ate my homework” – but we all know it can happen, and the rest of the world is not very forgiving.
Cloud computing is potentially, the answer to all of our local PC woes. While many organizations utilize centralized storage and work access via intranets, Google’s new Chrome OS/PC may just make cloud computing possible for your average Joe.
This much anticipated product will push people to move activity from hard drives to web servers – be this working on documents and databases or watching movies and listening to music. Many prudent end users probably already use syncing services to ensure easy file access and safety – but personally I think the cloud will revolutionize computing/work efficiency and reliability.
Come June 15th, I’m going to try to get my hands on one of these, how about you?
