The Digital Cloud

The latest news on the online application space is the announcement of Google's new App Engine which is designed to let the designers of software as a service applications to outsource hosting and data storage for their applications by using key elements of Google's infrastructure.

Essentially the Google App Engine is very similar in concept to the popular services that Amazon has made available and used by many internet startups, with one major difference and that is that the Google is a complete bundled service. This may make is easier for the developers, but I am sure the news will start a lot of discussions around the world about the advisability of putting all your startup's eggs in google's one basket.   I can see good arguments for and against. What about you?

The Asus Eee PC is becoming a big success.  Probably a surprise hit for most people except perhaps for Asus, although I suspect that even they have been surprised by its success. I have't mentioned the Eee before on this blog , but I thought I would now as  the unexpected success of the little laptop is actually beginning to have some potentially significant and long reaching effects.

Effect 1 - It is pushing Linux on to the desktop

For a long time now Linux has actually been good enough for the desktop, having increased in usability and capability significantly over the last few years. But there was never any really compelling reason  to switch, and try and cope with the inevitable differences from what users where used to. But Asus have managed to tweak the desktop so that the standard features that users are expecting are easy to find and what is more, just work. I have read some commentators suggest that because of the different form factor, people are more willing to adjust to the slight differences from Windows, and I can see the sense in that.  So that barrier has being broken.

Effect 2 - What a price

At this price it is almost worth buying just to have a play! A fully functional ultra portable laptop at that price is an enormous attraction, and is probably the big selling point. The ability for Asus to get down to these prices again is helped by the Linux operating system, probably cutting overall costs by around 30%.  If the software had been a pig to use then this approach would of back fired, but it did and it hasn't!  Other vendors are now having a look and are having to at least think about their own prices and that will be good for all consumers.

Effect 3 - A whole new market

The success of the Eee has got all the other vendors taking note, and their are loads of rumours of similar models in the works from the likes of Elonex and Acer.  There is a whole new market niche being created in front of our eyes. And will all these new models be running Linux? Probably pushing the open source operating system further out on to the desktop.

Effect 4 - It is pushing Microsoft into a corner

Microsoft had been thinking about stopping the sales of Windows XP in June this year as a move to further push Vista. But now they have a problem as Vista will not run on these micro laptops, whereas XP will. So do Microsoft give up this area of the market and allow Linux a significant beachhead on the desktop? I feel we may see XP supported for longer.  

 I am really tempted myself. Have any of you succumbed already?

Arthur C Clarke, the science fiction writer who was also famous for coming up with the idea of geosynchronous satellites has died aged 90 in Sri Lanka, where he had lived for the past 50 years. His  most famous story was 2001: A Space Odyssey and I can still  remember been taken to watch Stanley Kubrick's film version as a boy by my parents and I have been a SciFi fan ever since.

What do you think the office of the near future is going to be like? Will it be much the same as present with perhaps slightly faster computers and with perhaps video conferencing being used more effectively? Or perhaps you think it will be more radically changed with more people working in virtual teams or virtual companies, requiring a greater reliance on mobile and web based technologies to get things done.

Virtual office

Well IBM have been considering this problem too, and they have predicted that the virtual office will increasingly become more important, driven by such things as globalisation and increasing concerns about the environment meaning less travel.  This will mean that the work environment will be become more centred around mobile platforms with increasing reliance on social networking and instant messaging for communication, with no room for desktop PC's, phones or email. They also predicted that the traditional meeting would change rapidly as 3D and gaming tools would become more important enabling the ability to hold quick online meetings.

But when?

What I like about this sort of thing is that no-one ever specifies a timeline in which this is all going to happen! But for me, if I look at the way my kids use instant messaging and their mobile phones for all their communications, then indeed I can see that shortly there will be future generations of workers used to working together in these ways. The desktop is on its way out already with laptops now outselling them. I do believe however the inertia and the gatekeeper role of  IT in large organisations, will serve as a drag on any quick change.  I also think that 3D and gaming tools will first make their mark in the area of training, where I believe there is huge potential.

So what do you think the office of the future will be like?

I don't know about you but I have never thought of Stephen Fry as a guy who would be into technology. There is of course  absolutely no reason why he shouldn't be a technology freak anymore than the rest of us.  Thinking about it now I can't explain why I was surprised when I discovered this, but I was!

Anyway Stephen has recently started blogging and has posted some good stuff, and the comments can make interesting reading too. His latest effort on pimping your browser is well worth a read.  One for the blog roll I think.