I do believe that this is going to be a niche market that is not going to catch on to the masses for the reasons that you mention in your post. Most people that have used computers for any length of time will not want to deal with the issues involved with having their information reside on some ghost machine out there somewhere.

Having said that I can see corporations and medium size businesses using Cloud to some degree to try and keep monthly costs down. Like you said the overall picture is it costs you more, but it’s a fixed cost monthly. Since you are also paying for storage and app usage in that fixed monthly cost it will have users.

All in all I still do believe it is a niche market. As we discussed it’s the new dumb terminal concept except instead of the apps and storage residing on your own company server it’s on someone else’s. Dumb terminals never took off either but they do serve a niche market.

You tackle many questions that cannot be answered. I do see advantages for cloud computing. But cannot use it as a main stream form of computing.
Why? Two main reasons. Bandwidth is expensive. Can you imagine paying for uploading and downloading documents continually.
Second, Bandwidth is unreliable. What in the world happens when you cannot get to your documents. Too many potential connection and reliability problems to fully trust your precious documents into the hands of another.

Like everything Cloud computing has it’s advantages and disadvantages. Just don’t think that it is the answer to all our problems or the Holy Grail of the modern computing world.

Thanks for the feedback. Would like to keep in touch with you at future discussions as well, your experience with internet marketing/SEO seems similar to mine in many ways. I’m sure future interactions would prove mutually beneficial.

Take care, n have a good day.

z

I could not have my work or client information on a cloud solution but im afraid we have to say stop to the companies investing billions or trillions in this NEW IDEA, probably for their own purposes only.

Im very sceptic on the Cloud solution purely for the lack of security today, how would it get better??

I agree that folks should certainly consider the costs and benefits of different operating systems in meeting their needs, and don’t believe Chrome OS will be a one-size-fits-all solution.

That being said, a few things I’ve been considering:

1. Data storage and applications.

I found a number of articles (i.e. http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/web_services/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=221900550) noting that computers with Chrome OS will allow for local and removable storage. In addition, I’m not convinced that Google will be charging for their most commonly used software at consumer level (i.e. Google Docs) given their ads-based revenue model. Should they (Google, Microsoft, Apple… etc) decide to, there are a large number of web-based alternatives (many FOSS) that would fit the webapps model of Chrome OS quite well.

2. Innovation

It’s difficult to distinguish innovation from individuals vs corporations, especially in instances in which a corporation encourages innovation from its employees, as is the case with Google’s Innovation Time (20 Time) which has been the source of approximately 50% of their product launches (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google#Innovation_Time_Off). Also, I don’t believe that a lack of software downloads will stifle innovations. Deployment models don’t stifle development models. Instead, many companies are generating revenue off of transitions from legacy architectures to web-based architectures, and many open-source and free software projects are web-based or written in easily ported architectures (an example being Java, easily deployed via Java WebStart or Applets) which are perfect for a Web-Based OS.

3. Security

In addition to servers, The Only Safe Computer is One Not Connected to the Net. And even at that, many public terminals on local networks face security risks via any other input to the machine such as USB or CD/DVD drives. With recent news of Chrome OS allowing local (internal and external) storage which would supports backups, with recommendations by DHS for employees to minimize locally stored data, with a linux-based OS where professionals are tasked with maintaining up-to-date security patches rather than varied and inconsistent update levels across customer machines, and with substantial server security architectures including backups, physical and virtual data segregation as well as encryption, there is a lot to be said for the Chrome OS security model in how it addresses current risks for PC machines.

While I think Google makes compelling products, Chrome OS won’t be blowing Mac or Microsoft’s OS’s out of the water anytime soon. What Chrome OS will do is support competition in the marketplace, and consumer responsibility being what it is, I hope that users will make the right personal and professional decisions in choosing what OS is right for their needs.

My biggest concern with this is that of business risk.

Whilst with paid Cloud services there is a contractual obligation for the provider to make the service available, I still regard it as a significant business risk until such time as the technology becomes more mature and – above all – robust. As regards using unpaid services, it’s probably best to assume that they won’t be there tomorrow and to plan for such an eventuality.

To replace desktop applications with something from Cloud is a concept with which I am not happy at all, unless redundant offline services exist (like going back to using your traditional office suite.) But then why have the Cloud in there at all? Please note that I am NOT talking about thin-client applications where the server is running in-house, only those where the fragile infrastructure of the Internet and third-party providers are involved.

I will continue to monitor the Cloud Phenomenon; ask me in a couple of years and I may revise my opinion. For now, however, I think that business risk would be minimised by sticking to traditional infrastructures.

Also these new cloud systems continue to suck up more and more bandwidth which is a hidden layer of cost you don’t plan or budget for…