Few months back, I was asking this to one of my friend turned entrepreneur that what is his opinion on technology in IT domain in next few years. He said definitely not cloud computing alone and certainly not mobile technology but something related to two. We discussed for some time and finally concluded that in next few years a new technology with the name of cloud mobile computing will be the talk of technology world. This new technology is nothing but a term for fusion of cloud computing and mobile technology.
I just happen to browse through the rich feature set of Apple iOS5 which is yet to be launched in the market and my eyes were stuck not on all but one feature that is iCloud. This allows you to access your music, photos, calendar, documents and apps from any of your devices.
Many companies have already started work in this direction. Easy access to internet along with smartphone is creating a new business opportunity for both developers and investors. Concepts such as creating and editing photos on your favorite smartphone or tablet, capturing and editing a movie on the run or even designing a new website by just drag and drop of pre-existing widgets in the cloud on your device and continuing the same work on your desktop and laptop from where you left on your handheld device are creating a lot of buzz in the market.
The effects of combination of mobile and internet are becoming globally pervasive and their effects on business and society will be profound. Customers and end-consumers will buy goods and services via mobile devices and communicate and network via social media applications in the mobile cloud. The UID scheme launched in India has opened new avenues for business start-ups to think and come up with innovative ideas in this direction. as mobile is the one belonging that is common between people of different class in the society.
I just happen to browse through the rich feature set of Apple iOS5 which is yet to be launched in the market and my eyes were stuck not on all but one feature that is iCloud. This allows you to access your music, photos, calendar, documents and apps from any of your devices.
Many companies have already started work in this direction. Easy access to internet along with smartphone is creating a new business opportunity for both developers and investors. Concepts such as creating and editing photos on your favorite smartphone or tablet, capturing and editing a movie on the run or even designing a new website by just drag and drop of pre-existing widgets in the cloud on your device and continuing the same work on your desktop and laptop from where you left on your handheld device are creating a lot of buzz in the market.
The effects of combination of mobile and internet are becoming globally pervasive and their effects on business and society will be profound. Customers and end-consumers will buy goods and services via mobile devices and communicate and network via social media applications in the mobile cloud. The UID scheme launched in India has opened new avenues for business start-ups to think and come up with innovative ideas in this direction. as mobile is the one belonging that is common between people of different class in the society.
Nice Read Mayank ! I am waiting for the iOS 5 to launch soon.
ReplyDeleteI think cloud computing and mobile technology are already hand in hand. Noticed that here you didn't mention Google anywhere :), the pioneer in Cloud computing. The list of applications that Google has its just mind boggling. How much of it we already use. Real challenge would be to upgrade our network connectivity capability. If you want Cloud to reach villages as well we need to get internet there first.
ReplyDeleteI would say that it's the cloud which is defining industry right now and mobile is just one of the means to access it. It could have very well been something else, such as iPad or a laptop.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Athar and selvester. I see mobile devices as one entity that will connect each and every person in this world. Availability of internet everywhere is only possible if we keep close to zero value internet prices over mobile. Once we reach this target, which we are slowly and steadily we will see plethora of business opportunities related to cloud over mobile.
ReplyDeleteHandheld devices along with cloud based apps are definately the future but its about getting the cloud right. Talking about VMWare, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and perhaps Sony would qualify as cloud giants in terms of research/user base that they have today. But which one's of these would get it right? None of them have made any real revenues out of "cloud" yet! Infact Sony n Amazon have been in serious losses for different reasons. Also talking about the stacks, is IaaS/PaaS/SaaS[in decreasing order of flexibility] the real cloud or all of them? Also i see bandwidth as the major issue while serving cloud on handheld devices to the real customers. A new compression protocol which supports more data on thin channels might be the need.
ReplyDeleteMayank, about your point on "UID scheme launched in India", its a healthy idea about innovation but consumerization of that might still take some time, yet, specially in India where we don't even have a reliable 3G! Businesses cannot arrive to a logical existance till research is proved and adopted by a few giants and Cloud is still in that nacent stage, budding, not much reliable and still a lot of big steps to get there.
Yes, I kind of agree with you about the big companies not making enough revenue out of cloud services. But talking of others such as DropBox and Google to some extent with its enterprise software and Android have been able to propel this technology in the right direction. Moreover my main concern is not what has happened till now. I see mobile usage along with cloud services as a solid enough substance to take technology to newer levels. I am sure you are aware of khanacademy.com, it's a complete reformation of education sector and is based solely on cloud services. Have you ever thought of virtualization of classrooms and even office spaces, that can reduce huge burden on infrastructure costs and rely just on technology to build newer world.
ReplyDeleteVirtualization of eduction system is existing from past 5-7 years. Its just now that they are moving to cloud. reliability etc etc are the only advantage. End user expericence remains the same. But education system/virtual classes [non c language] are a bit subjective topics to be discussed on this technical blog :D
ReplyDeleteI can't think of one school in India which make use of this technology adequately. And I appreciate your concern here about the subjectivity of discussion involved :)
ReplyDelete