Is the world ready for an always-connected, cloud-reliant Windows?

bealtine

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/96073-is-the-world-ready-for-an-always-connected-cloud-reliant-windows

Earlier this morning, at the Build Windows conference in Anaheim, California, Microsoft made it patently clear that “To the cloud!” is not merely a throwaway phrase: it is the entire future of the company. Every single one of Microsoft’s services, platforms, and form factors will now begin its hasty, leave-no-prisoners-behind transition to the always-on, internet-connected cloud.

Windows 8, Windows Server, Windows Phone 7, Xbox, Bing, and Office, and each of their corollary utilities and tools, will all become “continuous services” — services that fully leverage Windows Azure and Live to provide a new level of context- and position-aware computing. Beyond updated cloud services, new versions of Visual Studio 2011 and .NET 4.5 give developers the tools they need to make cross-platform and cross-form factor programs that can easily hook into Azure.

Now, this isn’t Apple and its 5% market share saying that it’s going all-in with the iCloud — and this isn’t Ford or Sony announcing that they’re going to supercharge a new generation of vehicles and devices with cloud connectivity; this is Microsoft, the largest software provider in the world — and if Ballmer & Co. are all in, then in a year or two, whether you like it or not, you will be all in too.

Are we ready for an always-on, status-updates-from-the-bathroom existence? Are we ready for the wholescale geotagging of our activities, and with ubiquitous, cloud-connected computing are we ready for the gamification of everything that will surely follow?

SkyDrive, Windows 8The way Microsoft describes it, Windows 8, Windows Phone 7, and Xbox, will all be able to share information with just a couple of lines of code — an awesome idea in theory, but in practice it will usher in an era of almost-prescient computers. Your Xbox will know what movie you searched for on your commute to work, and then automatically play it when you get home. You will sign up to a new service on your Windows 8 tablet, and then you will be automagically signed in when you pick up your phone and head out the door.

Are we really ready for a world where the devices we use for most of our waking hours can communicate behind our backs? Is that even the correct way of looking at it if the data belongs to us, rather than Google or another nefarious web tracker that makes money from harvesting, mining, and selling your data. Computers are merely tools, after all, and anything that can ameliorate the nail-pulling process of logging into Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail, and manually transferring music and photos to and from every device must be a Good Thing.

A better question to ask, though, is whether our data networks are ready. One day we will all have 100Mbps to the home and similar speeds to our tablets and smartphones, but until is it really prudent to build services and games that so strongly rely on the web? We are already at the stage where we curse out loud and feel consummately useless if we go through a 3G blackspot or if our ISP falls over — but imagine what it will be like when every app uses server-side logic.

This isn’t just a consumer issue, either: you know where you are with an installed program running on a standard platform like Windows 7 or iOS. When you throw web connectivity into that mix — when you rely on Azure (or another cloud provider) and numerous intermediary connections being online and available — it is almost impossible to guarantee 100% up-time. For enterprises, this is a problem — and as consumer services become steadily more cloud-reliant, it will also become an issue at home. Imagine leaving the office, assuming that your browser tabs and passwords will be automatically transferred to your computer at home — but your ISP is suffering an outage. What do you do?

A cloud-connected future is definitely exciting, and Windows 8, as the first OS that has been built from the ground up to hook into Azure and Live and other Microsoft services has the potential to change everything — but in practice, there will almost certainly be stumbling blocks that might be difficult to overcome.

watty

Relying on "the cloud" for anything is stupidity. Ever.

It's just the Internet.

bealtine

watty wrote: »

Relying on "the cloud" for anything is stupidity. Ever.

It's just the Internet.

right and lots of people still can't get reliable broadband (mobile and satellite midband is not reliable) anyway so they are "stuck" in an unconnected world

watty

Satellite can be reliable.

But Satellite (VSAT, two way) least suited for "Cloud" applications due to latency. Also Secured connections/ Tunnelling (needed for Business) often won't even work at all on Satellite.