The computer's hard drive will be superfluous, everything will be in the network: In recent years, cloud computing has become a major development trend of the global information and communication industry. Now, internet giants are bringing new temptations to consumers. Even though many of them seem free, there is no real free stuff.
David Bradshow is definitely an IT expert. He says he has spent most of his lifetime dealing with the Internet. Since Apple CEO Steve Jobs has released a icloud--online service that is a bit like a portable hard drive, Bradshaw's phone has been ringing non-stop. Users can store text, pictures, and music in the cloud, and can open them anywhere from a computer, cell phone, ipad, and so on. These data are like clouds hovering over us, and hence the name "cloud computing". "If that's the case, people will go crazy," Bradshaw told his caller bluntly, "I would never put any of my music and data into the cloud." ”
Why? Did Bradshaw not hear what Steve Jobs did when he released icloud? Did he not realize how great it would be? Did he not see the forecasts of his IDC company and other market research companies? Cloud services-Apple just added a i--in front of the internet is said to be the next direction of development. In Germany alone, cloud computing providers will reach 3.5 billion euros this year. Needless to say, the world's top High-tech companies are gearing up to prepare for the next race in the Internet arena. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and even Facebook are all too ambitious, except for the warming up campaign. Is cloud computing only a piece of paper?
in fact, cloud computing can solve many of the most embarrassing problems in our lives: when we want to listen to our favorite songs on the way to travel and forget to download our tapes, when we're going to practice tomorrow's demo at home, but the demo files are still on the office computer. When we took pictures on our cell phone and couldn't send e-mail because the file exceeded the size limit. According to a survey by Forrester in the UK, one out of every five Internet users has experienced the annoying problem.
And cloud computing can eliminate our bad moods at such times. We no longer need to save photos, files, music to our computer, and then spread it through U disk, data cable or email. Through the cloud, they are stored in the same network--stored on the network company's huge hard disk. In this way, we can get what we want from any device that is connected to the Internet.
The rosy prospect of
cloud computing promises us far more than that. With the help of so-called Web applications-programs that exist on the web-users can modify photos, clip music, or edit text directly in the browser. In this way, we save money to buy software without worrying about missing out on some important updates to the software.
Currently, although we have a few clouds in our network sky, we have not yet been to the clouds. One reason may be that small vendors tend to balk at cloud computing because of security concerns. Dropbox recently had a time when landing was particularly time-consuming, and the user data was largely unprotected. Dropbox is a networked storage online application that provides synchronous local files. Supports automatic synchronization of multiple computers in multiple operations. And can be used as a large capacity network hard disk.
so far, only about One-fourth of internet users have used cloud computing services, and many users have been using the cloud even more often. This may change from now on. On the one hand, internet giants have entered the field; On the other hand, the price of networked storage will be cheaper and faster, and more and more mobile phones will be hanging on the internet. Now, wherever you are, you can move all the music you've collected online. Unless you're in a tunnel or on a plane, just press the Start button and a few seconds later you can hear the music in your headphones.
users will be trapped
Why is it expert Brad Shaw of IDC refusing to use this progressive technology? Does he prefer to deal with USB drives and Bluetooth devices?
Brad has a phobia of binding--it's not without reason. Once you're in the cloud, it's going to be a hassle to get out of it. If you want to put a lot of your favorite movies into networked storage, it often takes days or even weeks. If you want to put your e-mail inbox in the cloud, you'll have to notify everyone that you've changed your address. If you want to edit the text on the network, you must familiarize yourself with the operation process.
and it all takes time, and the problem is no one likes to waste time. In other words, once you change another cloud-computing provider, you'll have to upload every song you like, and notify each friend of your new e-mail address. Because a single move--the possibility of moving all the data from one cloud to another through a single operation--is non-existent. So Bradshaw experts like to say that users will be locked, trapped.
It's hard to get out of a certain ecosystem
network giants, of course, are very knowledgeable about this phenomenon, so they are touting their cloud computing services. What they follow is nothing but the principle of maximization: to win as many users as possible in the shortest amount of time. But for our users, it's about whether you want to be permanently bound. By looking at the strategies of these web companies, you may be speculating about how cloud computing services will evolve in the future. In particular, market researchers believe companies that will make a difference in cloud computing, such as Apple, Google and Microsoft.
when Steve Jobs appeared at the Moscam Exhibition Center in San Francisco in early June, the interior of Apple's new building was projected onto a huge screen behind him. In this building, there are rows of gleaming silver servers with no end in sight. Steve Jobs, who always wore a turtleneck, looked very small in front of a huge screen. The message here is: We have a lot of space to store your data!
Although icloud is the first to propose, this is not the first time Apple has tried cloud computing. As early as 2002, Apple launched an online service called MobileMe, which includes virtual memory, e-mail inbox, and schedule management software. The cost of use was eventually determined at € 79 per annum.
icloud's mission is to replace this unsuccessful MobileMe and provide it to users for free. Of course, the free is not because of jobs ' love. Apple is selling devices-computers, MP3 players, mobile phones and the ipad, the latest tablet computer. Apple's devices have been using its own operating system and its own standards. On the one hand, Apple's devices tend to do better than others. Hardware and software sources are consistent and do not cause drivers or components to be incompatible. On the other hand, users may struggle to get rid of the ecosystem. The programs you buy can only be used on imac computers, iphones, or ipads, which means they can't run on devices produced by other companies. In the long run, even music downloaded from the itunes Store cannot be played on other MP3 players. Once you have an ipod, you'll have to buy more music from Apple--and the envelope for Apple's users is getting smaller.
may also have a similar strategy behind the free icloud: It has a new feature-when users upload text, music, and other files to the Web, they are automatically pushed to the ipod, IPhone, ipad, which means they are automatically transferred to those devices. So, you never have to worry about forgetting your office presentations, and you don't have to worry about showing your vacation photos to your friends. The drawback: Apple doesn't share this feature with all the other vendors ' devices-although the technology can now run on Windows computers, it's not available on other phones or tablets.
in the future, Apple will continue to optimize the application of I and Apple products. If you have a day to buy an electronic device with a name that does not start with I, consider the matching problem with the Apple program. You will soon be tested by this relationship. In addition, many other companies also have seemingly beautiful cloud computing services.
Google pursues a consistent cloud computing strategy
Google's cloud computing strategy has not changed. Years ago, users could use Google's docs to write emails online and manage holiday photos with Picasa. While Apple still relies on a combination of apps and cloud computing-Apple's customers are still buying word-processing programs to keep files synchronized across all devices-Google has moved all apps online.
can say that Google's strategy is logical. Because 98% of Google's revenue comes from advertising. What users pay is not money, but attention. How does this strategy work? Can be proved by Gmail. When a user opens a message, Gmail automatically analyzes the contents of the message and displays the corresponding advertisement. Although Google has not yet announced that this feature will be put to docs and picasa--if the image recognition function is so advanced, but it can be imagined that he would do so. For example, if you complain about the bad communication in your email, you will automatically appear in the telecom provider's ad, and if you are browsing the beach photos, you will automatically appear in the hotel ads.
's use of Google's new operating system, the Chrome OS laptop, is also perfect for this strategy: These notebooks are not able to install other programs and can only work with online applications. Their advantage: The boot only takes a few seconds, and you can easily switch from one device to another. As Google continues to store users ' work on the web, users can continue to work on each computer. The disadvantage is: if there is no network nearby, the user's hand notebook will not be useful. Google is said to be working on how to get users offline, like on a plane, but it may take at least a few months. But for Google, adding offline operations is not as important as the user: As long as users operate the computer online, they will see more ads, and Google earns more. If any user doesn't want to pay attention, then they have to ditch Google's web apps, not to mention using Chromebook notebooks.
Cloud makes Microsoft a dilemma
As mentioned above, Google users if they want to leave it is relatively easy. With the advent of the Data Liberation Front (Liberation Front) and "takeaway" (take-out) new services, Google can export data from different applications. Of course, Gmail users will still download contacts, emails and filters separately, and then import other places if they can. Without a common interface, this approach is a huge hurdle for most users. So they will stay.
So, what is the world's third biggest it field doing? Microsoft has actually started to layout cloud computing long ago. 15 years ago, Microsoft bought two Americans Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith's web page "Hotmail", the price is incredibly 400 million dollars. The two sides spent a lot of time on the issue of email loading, meaning they invented an e-mail service that could read information directly on the server.
but then, Microsoft abandoned the Internet program and turned to full development of software, such as office, which made it a full pot. The advent of cloud computing has put Microsoft in a dilemma: should it cede the field to free service rivals and bear the consequences of a user outflow? Or should you develop your own Web applications and swallow your own performance? Microsoft CEO Ballmer last year offered a preliminary answer: free Office Web apps, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
However, there is also a risk of choosing Microsoft: The company has neither passed the equipment nor made much money by advertising. So market researchers such as David Bradshow believe that it may end up with a "free-value-added" (Freemium) model. In other words, the use of free services to attract users, and then through value-added services, some of the free users into charging users, while competitors are using a free program to expand their user base.
There is no doubt that the above three cloud products have advantages. It depends on how you want to spend your money. Do you buy the right equipment directly, or do you pay for the ads, or do you pay for the program directly? Or you could be like David Bradshow, in his words, "be a hard drive man." Because there is only real freedom in the clouds that do not fall into cloud computing. (China ccpit Electronic Information Industry branch compiled: Kang)
August 23, 2011, "Germany" Times newspaper website
