There’s been a significant amount of dialogue lately about cloud computing and netbooks. For those of you not in the loop, here’s a quick synopsis of the concept. Right now all of your files and information live on your computer. OK, so maybe not everything, but the overwhelming majority of things are on your computer. This includes email, Word documents, Photoshop files, Excel files, photos, and so much more. If you will, your computer (laptop or desktop) is the mother ship and all of your files live on the mother ship.
Netbooks are smaller scaled down versions of your computer (think smaller screens, lighter weight, tinier hard drives, etc.). The cloud seeks to have all of your information live somewhere else beyond your computer. If you use Hotmail or Gmail you can those are great examples of how email can live in the cloud. The netbooks can be smaller, lighter, and have a smaller hard drive, because they are designed to plug in to the internet and connect with the cloud.
In theory this seems like a cool idea…a great idea even. I mean the Googles of the world (where your email lives) have back up servers and can protect your data. With information living in the cloud, you can access it from anywhere. This is a great concept. However, there’s two major flaws.
- Infrastructure: We have a horrible infrastructure. Do you find your internet access at home, work, and in between to be reliable? Of course not. The wifi coverage is poor, expensive, and at best semi-reliable. If your access to the cloud is interrupted you can’t get your precious pieces of information.
- Control: When your information lives in the cloud you are beholden the cloud providers. Think of each cloud provider as a mother ship. Gmail holds your mail. Meebo lets you connect via instant messenger. Google Docs takes care of spreadsheets and other Microsoft Office like files. Mobile Me will let you store your contacts and bookmarks. I think you get what I’m saying. But, what happens when Google cancels a product like Google Notebook? Well, you’re kinda screwed.
The control problem exists everywhere. Microsoft could in theory cancel Office. It’s doubtful, but it could happen. Infrastructure is the real problem. We’re all familiar with the story of Paul Revere. Paul had quite a powerful message to deliver. What would have happened if Paul didn’t have a horse, or better yet, what if there were no roads (as crude as they were back then)? The message would not have been delivered.
To paint a slightly different picture, what if the message Paul was carrying lived in the cloud. However, when the time came to share the message, he experienced a service interruption and couldn’t access the message for 24 hours. If that had happened, we might still be under British rule 
A message, your message can be well written, poignant, and convincing, but if you don’t have the means for delivery no one will ever hear it. It’s this fact that doesn’t have me bought in to cloud computing and netbooks.
Head of Social Media at Walgreens. Interactive marketer, innovator, boat rocker, continuous learner, movie lover, risk taker, dad and all around good guy. I'm always up for a spirited conversation. These are my thoughts and ramblings, not those of my employer.
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