Following up quickly from my last blog - where do I see some of the key
highlights and what Conchango are talking about with our clients and potential
clients is how you structure "your cloud" in order to make it
accessible, visible and indexed correctly.
Gone are the days where you can just pump content and data up to a virtual
storage solution - that has been going on for years. SaaS starts to create the
cloud with substance, purpose and dynamics.
If we are to truly see the desktop as the event horizon for SaaS and how we
explore these ideas further - then the data that is stored has to be able to
link itself to other materials and data within the cloud. This in return can
then be displayed and delivered to the user's desktop (I use the term desktop
here as a metaphor for their access point, or their entry point into services
and software - but this could as easily be shown on a mobile device as well as
a handheld converged device such as the iTouch - as long as there is a valid
connection to the cloud)
I have also read with some interest over the weekend that Apple's patent application published this week suggests that they
will start to bridge this gap with their iPods and iPhones via something like
Orb Networks or Sling
This is not getting to the root of the issue - and where my thinking is
slightly different - using what Apple suggest, or Orb or even Simplify Media -
there needs to be a resident PC live and active in order to have network access
to the library - again this is nothing new or revolutionary - yes perhaps
connecting to your iTunes library from your iPhone over 3G or Wi-Fi seems great
as now you can access your content - but you need to leave the house in the
morning with your PC, Mac or whatever on and active. This may well be fine for
us that have media servers at home that stores and manages all our media
content - but this is too much for the mass market to adopt. They will happily
leave on their SKY box or Freeview box, just as they did with their video
players - but to expect someone to not close down the lid of their laptop or
walk out the room while their desktop whirrs and humms in the background will
not happen.
Take all the content into the cloud - the media can be discovered,
downloaded, ripped shared in all kinds of ways - but this is the slave - let
the cloud take the content and store this up there.
Then when synchronising your devices - or when registering your
devices; this will be the stage where you can decide that you want
specific data on to it or not. That way if you need to share some holiday snaps
of the family with another colleague - then your cloud understand the
constraints of your smartphone in that it has a tiny screen and your accessing
via 3G - so no real point in downloading the full HD resolution of the
photos - but instead smart delivery of the photos that is resized and delivered
to your phone.
Back to the media - MobileMe - totally missed out iTunes on it's first
deployment (probably due to the DRM issue) and Live Mesh also missed out
Windows Media Player (again probably down to WMDRM - or lack of any new Windows
Media Player announcements) There are hundreds of companies out there that state
that they "can access your media to you anywhere" - yes but only
because it has access to the resident PC/Mac and then it must be left on! The
access and delivery methods that are around now and some of the patents pending
with Apple are not new nor are they going to push the boundaries of data
access.
I recently spoke with a new start up in Silicon Valley that was going to
head down the path like Orb, Simplify Media, etc.. and talked them out of it in
the nick of time - and saved the VC a whole load of money and wasted investment - they are now looking at developing a cloud storage and synchronisation
infrastructure
The next instalment will look at the creation of the cloud, the synchronisation
and the ultimate prize - the syndication and monetisation of YOUR content!
Think of this that as part of your cloud structure you have the syndication
element enabled to sell you details to price comparison engines that know
(because you allowed it to know) when your car and house insurance is up for
renewal - they have the detail that is required - this is only the start - as
you control your data and decide on what you want - the guarantee to the price comparison
engines for example is that now they have access to a network of people that
they can in effect go out en-mass and start to buy bulk orders of insurance and
get the best possible prices for their users - a win - win - win for all
really.
That is what is exciting about the cloud and data indexing sorting - not
just being able to access my photo or email on the go, and not just by leaving
my Mac running at home heating up in off chance that I decide to access an
album at work!
The cloud is busting...