The IDC have recently predicted that revenue from software provided as a service (such as Google docs) will grow 5 times quicker than normal software, and very soon a third of all software will be delivered via the web. Apparently by 2012, we will be spending more than $42 billion on cloud computing.

The development of cloud computing has been spurred on by many things, primarily the ability to be connected easily where ever you are.

The abundance of free wi-fi spots located all over your city, on your train and even on your next flight means you can connect whilst mobile. The roll out of super fast broadband in many areas has meant that people have come to accept higher speeds as standard. People spend all day connected to the web, so cloud based companies have grown to support this need.

This has been supported by the development of the netbook. As of 2010, netbooks don’t really rival laptops for computing power, so we make do with netbooks and tablets that are slightly underpowered, but that’s OK because they are cheap, portable and you can connect to the web wherever you are.

Netbooks and Tablets are portable and underpowered, but the cloud is powerful and accessible everywhere you go. It’s a perfect match between portability and power.

People begin to use cloud services without even noticing, Gmail or Yahoo allow email to be sent without an email client and from there people move to the bundled services such as Google Docs. Once people see the benefits of these services, the next logical step is to move all your work to cloud.

I started using Google Docs in 2008 and I have now progressed to a free operating system called Jolicloud. It’s based on Linux but almost entirely populated with cloud software. It installs on pretty much any laptop or netbook and offers a seamless experience. It goes to show that you can get pretty much anything you need online and it’s all totally free.

This current trend towards free software isn’t going to continue without some source of revenue for the developers creating and hosting their work. Some offer a license for their software for a small charge, but many provide the service for free. Just as mobile apps are supported by adverts and Spotify is interrupted with voice over’s, your next spread sheet might feature adverts too.

We are officially spoilt for choice (just look at the size of the app store for Android and Apple) There are masses of high quality free applications being developed for your mobile. These apps are all based around the model of selling advertising space within the app; after all, they allow extremely accurate targeting of particular customer types based on their interests. This model of advertising works and it’s the same idea that is being used in the cloud.

Much like the explosion in usage of mobile apps, people will warm to the idea of cloud computing and it will take off in a huge way. Just look at the latest news:

Dell and HP are currently fighting over Boomi, a leader in the cloud business and Microsoft and Google are apparently beginning a bidding war to provide cloud services to the US government. With these giant companies trying to get a foothold in the market, it’s clear that the future of cloud computing is going to be big. There are already hundreds of services available online that do everything from tracking your calorie intake to constructing your next presentation. It’s just a case of getting people to use them. With the rumoured Google operating system coming soon, we might see a sudden uptake in the number of people using cloud services.

Many people complain about how much advertising there is on the web, but the fact is, a lot of websites wouldn’t be around without the revenue that ads generate. People would rather have an ad supported service then no service at all. For the smaller developers, advertising has now become a necessary evil to be able to fund their projects.

Ultimately, as long as the adverts don’t get in the way of the user experience, it’s a small price to pay for such an amazing service that comes at no expense to the consumer. If these cloud based applications thrive in the same way as mobile apps have, we might come to expect all our software to be provided free of charge.

Since the launch of Bing, the rivalry between Google and Microsoft heated up in recent months, add that to the browser wars of Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and you can only see the competition intensifying further. Well, it just has.

Google announced on their blog that they plan to launch an operating system by the name of Google Chrome OS. It is said to be a natural extension of Google Chrome, an operating system designed to incorporate the modern day usage of the internet and set a new standard of operating systems.

Google already have an operating system

Google have already released a mobile operating system known as Android, and was designed for various mobile devices and even netbooks. Google Chrome OS has been created for those who spend most of their time on the web (I suppose I’m in there!), with speed, simplicity and security being the key aspects. Google said the following on their blog:

“Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.”

As mentioned above, Google expect to have Google Chrome OS available through netbooks later next year. How it will run is another question though. Google mention in their post that they will use open source software and everything will be available from the internet. So does this mean no hard installs from CDs/DVDs? Just simple downloads from the internet? All your files and back-ups will be filed on the internet too?

Obstacles for Google Chrome OS

As most of the user experience occurs on the web, I question the security aspect and I’m sure this is something Google will respond too in the upcoming months to put our minds at ease. Microsoft has never really been great on the security factors, just recently Internet Explorer has been found to have a major security flaw. With this in mind, Google will need to be on their toes with the security issues to ensure they get the full backing from the public.

Finally, I question the uptime. Speed and simplicity are great, yet in regards to storage Google quote:

“They (the users) want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files”

After recent downtime issues with Gmail and other applications Google provide, this will be another hurdle they must get over and make sure there are no downtime problems leading up to the release of the Google Chrome OS.

The prospect of Google Chrome OS is exciting, I’m sure there will be scepticisms but the potential of this new operating system is massive and Microsoft (don’t forget Apple too)  may be fighting to keep their market share in the near future.

A phrase coined by O’Reilly Media in 2004 refers to a
supposed second-generation of Internet-based services — such as social
networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies — that let
people collaborate and share information online in previously unavailable ways.
O’Reilly Media, in collaboration with MediaLive International, used the phrase
as a title for a series of conferences and since 2004 it has become a popular
(though ill-defined and often criticised) buzzword amongst certain technical
and marketing communities.

The main points of Web 2.0 are participation and integration,
with sites prompting user input with product reviews, chatting and blogging.
Below is a table showing the evolution of well-performing Web 1.0 sites to the
currently well performing Web 2.0 site:

Current Web Relation

The idea of Web 2.0 is to enhance user experience by making
the web a place to be and trying to move everything you would normally do
offline, online. This can be seen in the surge of social sites now available,
with the idea of moving something that almost all people do offline into the
online market. This has meant that for almost everything you do offline, there
is a version or online equivalent. This is where making your site stand out
from the crowd becomes essential, some sites go for the user experience other
sites go for a marketing approach.