Everything in the Cloud …
Posted in Inspiration, Latest, Thoughts - August 8, 2010 - tim
So there’s been plenty of talk about cloud computing over the years, but that talk has typically focused on corporate and/or siloed use (e.g. music). The utility of cloud computing / storage has always been pretty self-evident to me, especially when the web hit and we first starting seeing successful apps (like salesforce.com) and not so successful experiments (like Groove from now MSFT exec Ray Ozzie who’s had all of his creativity sucked out of him in Redmond).
But what about casual users? Lot’s of talk about the (I think inevitable) transition from “owned” libraries of music (LP’s, then cassettes, then CD’s, then “soft” files on iPods and iTunes) to uber libraries of music in the cloud: basically the transition from licensing discrete assets forever, to “renting” access to universal libraries. Rhapsody first introduced this idea, to moderate but not overwhelming success. Spotify in Europe (and elsewhere) is looking interesting and getting great takeup.
Part and parcel to the slow takeup by consumers in cloud-based products is I’m sure the fundamental concept of “ownership” – this is “my” stuff because it’s right here, I bought it, mine forever. But along with “ownership” comes the big problem of storage and “maintenance”. All of a sudden, given Moore’s Law, increasing media resolution (and file size), and lowering prices of consumer electronic devices, storage, backup and security are becoming a real hassle.
Ask your typical consumer about their backup strategies for their music, photos, movies, etc. (their digital assets) and you will more often than not get a blank stare. For folks with large libraries of assets (I manage currently about 30,000 photos in Aperture alone), the first time a hard drive fails and all of that data goes “poof”, those folks will have faced a tough reality. What you own you must maintain.
However, what you rent, you don’t necessarily have to worry about. And that concept is going to trump the fundamental concept of “ownership” very very soon. And there are some great new products that are starting move me into rent vs. own in a big way. (more…)
