The Cloud

If you have been under a rock for the past few years than you probably have not heard of Cloud Computing. I have had the opportunity to live in the cloud for the past few years as an experiment while in graduate school. I started using Google Docs when it was in its infancy back in 2006 and have watched it mature nicely into a very capable software-as-a-service with offline capabilities. I have seen it grow up and become a toddler that now knows how to walk on the verge of learning to run.

In this same timeframe, Amazon Web Services has evolved into Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Apple announced its MobileMe service which is replacing its popular .Mac service, and Google launched Sites and AppEngine this year. What all these new services have in common is that they are taking advantage of the cloud. All the while this was all happening, virtualization the foundation on which a lot of the cloud utilizes and leverages, has evolved significantly and virtual private server (VPS) services (i.e., Tektonic.net) have evolved into very capable offerings.

The most interesting aspect of cloud computing is that it has evolved very rapidly as a disruptive force. This type of computing has opened up the market for the current generation of smartphones, cloud devices (i.e., internet tablets, ultra-mobile PCs using Linux, and more).

Cloud computing innovation in 2008 has made me rethink my own personal computing architecture at home. I have several Linux servers and devices providing my server requirements for the past ten years. Now, it is gotten to the point where maintaining my home infrastructure is becoming a burden as the number of devices proliferates. There are HD set top boxes, streaming video servers (Sony Location Free, NetFlix, iTunes, YouTube), PSP, PlayStation3, iPods, Wii, GameCube, etc... and the future will only bring more internet capable devices into the household.

The Cloud is looking better and better as the future architecture.