“The Cloud” – an expression becoming more and more popular the last couple of years, defining the new ways of using computers. Realizing the other day, that I am moving more and more into the clouds, I thought I would try to summarize my usage of “the cloud” and where I see this going.
Doing Business in The Cloud
The most important usage for me is in my business. Since we started using Dropbox, sharing files and mockups has been incredible easy. We also use it to share files with out freelancers and partners, and there is no more zipping files and sending emails; just copy the files to the shared folder, and everybody on the team automatically receive the files.
I also use it in private, sharing my most important files and photos, so I always have a backup on all my computers; so when I loose my laptop or need to reinstall the OS, I don’t loose my most important stuff.
We also collaborate with tools like Basecamp and latest we are trying out a new server setup with VPS in the Clouds – the latter is very interesting, and so far I am still working on setting the server up with everything. When we get some more experience with VPS.net, I will probably make a post about it.
Is The Future Cloudy?
I strongly believe the future is in the cloud. However, for me the worst thing is being in a country with bad internet connections. If I had connections like back in Europe (where 10mbit is not uncommon nor expensive), there is no doubt I would move a lot of my stuff to the cloud – music, movies, TV Streaming. But as Peru still does not even deliver a stable connection (Even our 4mbit in the office is rarely 4mbit, and often goes down – and Telmex are never able to provide), I cannot make the jump to be 100% in the cloud.
Looking at systems like Jolicloud, and Apple & Google’s products with more and more of our stuff in the cloud, it makes sense that this is the future. If the provided connections can follow, I believe that very few of us will still have big hard disks for storage in our computer – all we need is enough space for the OS and streaming of our content. Movies and music will be streamed, whether its to our phone, stereo, TV or computer, and all of our content will automatically be synced with our different computers, smart phones and tablets.
What is your look on the future? Do you already use the cloud, and do you think the concept of Cloud Computing in general will take over?
