I have to admit that this type of short post could transmit the idea of a follow-the-hype initiative, but that was not the intention. So following some feedback on the Google Groups I’ve decided to clarify some of my initial thoughts.
First, I have to clarify on what part of Cloud Computing I was talking about. As I’ve written here (http://www.cloudviews.org/2008/12/cloud-computing-the-internet-becomes-our-computer/) the SaaS layer is the one, in my perspective, that could have more relevance to the user’s daily work or in the user’s perspective of the Cloud. And it’s precisely there where I think that products such as the Google Chrome OS and the Palm WEB-OS could have a strong impact. Not because they are thin clients to access the Cloud but because they will put the cloud working for users.
The perfect sandbox or ecosystem for SaaS applications is the web browser, but because its development is so dependent on the development of the underlying OS, I think that having both developed in an integrated way could be a major step forward.
To be able to have a perfect Could OS we still need to develop simple things as:
- a web clipboard: I’ve introduced some ideas here: http://www.cloudviews.org/2009/02/the-internet-command-prompt-and-maybe-the-internet-clipboard/
- better offline modes, using HTML5 or Google Gears tools
- better Identity selectors (or digital wallet): I’m working on a short post about it, I hope to have it available soon.
Those are simple examples that I think could be easily developed if they are built in a integrated way.
It’s obvious that in a commercial perspective, and being Google one of the top developers on the SaaS market, to have a complete Could ecosystem is something that they would love to have, and it’s precisely here that they should be careful and try not to close this platform and make it only available to their products. Taking the VMware (Virtualization) example, don’t forget that we are now trying to discussed which Virtual Machine Open Format is more suitable to prevent the vendor lock-in problem.
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