Cloud computing - what does it mean to you?

There is a lot of talk about cloud computing, lots of buzz words, hype and promises – its like web 2.0 all over again. I am pretty keen on understanding what the latest word on the street is all about so set myself the task of delving a little deeper. Unsurprisingly I found this is a label being attached to something many of us are already doing.

So the hype machine says cloud computing is all about having applications and data on demand in a connected world. You no longer need big powerful computers with lots of applications installed and huge disk space to store all your data as long as you have an Internet connection. The theory is you can get access to applications, storage and processing power over the Internet – so none of the stuff you use actually resides on your computer – it all sits on someone else's machines, and is there problem to look after.

Is it just me or do you remember this idea being touted back in the 90's? It was a little different then. Everybody in the 90's had desktop computers and the concept of wireless computing didn't really exist. The idea was you had a super cheap computer on your desk that didn't have a hard disk drive and very little processing power. All your applications would be on your companies servers, as would your data. You could go and sit at any terminal and as soon as you login you get your desktop, your apps and your data.

Hang on, isn't that what computers were back in the 80's? Big mainframe systems where everything sat centrally and you got to it through a text based interface.

Anyway it didn't really take off in the 90's because we didnt have the web. So it was still a download/remote application that had to be written for that specific device. Also we didn't have the Internet (in any useable commercial form) so all the apps had to sit on the companies servers. Why go to all this bother when Novell and Microsoft were providing companies with perfectly serviceable software to do the job on your machine and there were fifty times more Windows machines available on the market than there were thin client computers.

Lastly portable computing started to happen in the 90's which is what really killed it off, because there was no wireless access so this concept simply didn't work. You could only have your applications and data whilst you were at your desk.

Fast forward to 2008 and all of a sudden it starts to make more sense. You can walk onto the high street and buy a 3 USB 3G modem and get reasonable speed, almost ubiquitous access for £10 a month. Public WiFi is in lots of high footfall locations and private WiFi is in nearly 50% of homes and most offices. You don't really have an excuse not to be connected.

The primary interface for this revolution is the web. A web browser these days is a pretty powerful thing. It can give you access to a lot more than just libraries of data. It can act as a full blown application that is stored elsewhere, with someone elses computer doing all the processing work.

So it doesn't sound like cloud computing is actually that new – its just a concept that's been waiting for the right technology and infrastructure to make it work.

So why is cloud computing interesting to you? There is one big reason – cost. You don't have to buy applications and put them on your computer. The upside of this goes beyond just the cost of buying the software too. If you don't have the software on your computer it needs less disk space and limited processing power. This makes the hardware at your end really economic too.

I bought a sub-laptop a couple of days ago. Given I'm having a mid-life crisis I decided to go the non-conventional route. I didn't buy a Windows based sub-laptop, that would have cost about £1000 for a decent one. I didn't buy a Macbook Air (although secretly I really wanted to), they cost £1299. I bought an Acer Asipre One netbook for £230. It has a small processor, only 8GB of disk space and runs the Linux operating system. For my applications it runs faster than a Windows machine, costs a fifth of an Apple and weighs less than all of them. And if I am feeling green it uses less power than all of them too. I'm quite pleased with myself – but more about that in a later blog.

And whilst on cost cloud computing applications are generally free or very cheap. Another cost saving!

The second reason cloud computing makes sense is convenience. As long as you are connected you have everything. Makes no difference where you are, and importantly what or who's machine you are using. I have a desktop at home, a big fat laptop for when I have to do big presentations (it has a big screen) and I have my little Linux netbook. It makes no difference which one I am using (or if I loose them all tonight in a fire) because within seconds of being on any machine I have access to all my data and applications.

The last reason is security. I trust third parties to backup all my data – after all it is sitting on their machine. But also if I loose my laptop tomorrow the thief doesn't get any of my data – unless he knows my passwords and goes online he cant get to any of it.

So what are these cloud computing applications? Let me start with something you will recognise and you may be surprised to find that you have been using cloud computing for a long time.

How long have you been using Google? That is a cloud computing application. You access it online and their machines do all the processing for you. How about Hotmail? You don't have to have an application on your machine (other than a web browser). They store all your email and you can access it from any computer anywhere. So as you can see cloud computing is more of a marketing campaign than a new revolutionary way of doing things.

I have managed to boil my working life down to just a few 'cloud computing' services and applications. Firstly I rely heavily on Google. I use Google mail because it is so very powerful. It has loads of storage space. It has the best search built in out there (so I can always find everything). Its available from any browser and it integrates into the next cloud application I use a lot - Google docs. Click on an attachment and it will open the file for you in Google docs to read or edit. It also automatically saves that document into your online document store.

Google docs is a suite of office applications that are free to use. It has the basic features of Microsoft Office that most of us use(word processor, spreadsheet, presentation), works in your web browser and stores all your documents online for you.

Sometimes if I need office software that has a bit more power or features I use OpenOffice. Its an installed suite of applications on my machine. Totally Microsoft compatible and conveniently free.

I use Google calendar because its easy, and I use Reqall for my todo lists. And lastly I use Basecamp for basic project management and file sharing.

All the above cost me a £230 laptop and about £10 a month. That's cheap computing.

Of course there is one thing I have missed out. Integration into mobile. Cloud computing really comes into its own when you get it all working with your mobile handset. I currently use an iPhone so subscribe to Mobile Me. It picks up my Google mail and pushes it to my phone. It also has push calendar and contacts. I have also managed to get Google calendar and Mobile Me to synchronise.

And that's it! I can do pretty much everything any normal user would need to do with that little lot. Cloud computing isn't a revolution, but it is becoming a reality and it can change how you work and save you a lot of money. So at this point I think I have talked myself into thinking that perhaps the hype was worthy after all!