September 18th, 2009 by David Daniels under @Tech Talk
I’ve been told if you can accurately predict the future, you can make money off of your predictions. Obviously if I could predict tonight’s lotto numbers I would be an instant millionaire, but today, as I do some research from my laptop, I begin to wonder, what is the future of computing?
I ask this as I write my most recent blog post using Google Docs which then will eventually be posted to my WordPress blog. With both Google Docs and WordPress I only need a browser and internet access. But what is Cloud Computing?
.
So here are some cloud computing applications I already use:
.
My mail is handled by Gmail, possibly the most powerful email system on the planet. Gmail was designed by Google to be made for power users and at over 7 gigs of memory per account I have yet to break the 20% usage barrier. I have thousands of emails going back to 2003 and have never deleted a single one, yet another application that can be run completely from the web.
.
As for my finances, I have also moved from Microsoft Money to Mint.com. After using Microsoft Money for well over 7 years I have moved to the completely free and always updated Mint.com without ever looking back.
.
By the way, there are apps for the iPhone for Google Docs, WordPress, Gmail and Mint.com.
.
So my thinking is, as more and more applications turn to web 2.0 and run off the web (also called cloud computing), what will happen to the IT field? All those people who fix computers for a living would eventually be put out of work. Computers would no longer need to be that powerful for the average user including the average business user. The only users who would need the more powerful computers would be Gamers or audio/video producers.
.
This would lead to less powerful computers being sold, or netbooks, as they are currently configured, which would be more than powerful enough to run your cloud computing needs.
.
Instantly on, always updated and available on any computer! I like the cloud computing movement. Just imagine, if you ever lose your laptop or your computer gets the blue screen of death, you just sign on to your new computer and your ready to go as if nothing went wrong.
.
It’s also incredibly easy to share my documents using Google Documents. I find it is much easier to share documents on Google with people who are not used to collaborating with Microsoft Office. As I spoke of in a previous blog posting, digital immigrants like myself, should take to the cloud computing technology very easily. The trick is stressing the point that as technology advances it is getting more user friendly, not more complicated.
.
Cloud computing… definitely has it’s advantages and will make all of us truly mobile! So if cloud computing is the future of the computing, should we be investing in cloud computing companies? IBM and Google seem to be leading the way.
.
What are your favorite Cloud Computing applications and why? Answer that question and you probably just found a great stock to buy once these companies get listed.
.
.
