On Friday, during our cloud computing event, Whose Cloud Is It Anyway?, Charles River Ventures partner George Zachary noted, “The cloud is the new dotcom.” He was one of the judges for the demo startups, and for good or for bad, he might be right. Cloud computing as a term is broad enough to encompass most internet startups and already is in danger of being latched onto as the next catch-all category. Yet there is also obviously something there. Amazon, Salesforce, Google, Microsoft, and even Facebook all want to become the cloud platform of choice for startups and developers to build their Web apps on.
And we are already seeing some impressive cloud-based apps that would have been much more difficult to build without these platforms. During the demos, for instance, Veodia showed an app for recording video in the cloud straight from a laptop’s camera—no uploading required. FathomDB is putting a relational database in the cloud (on Amazon’s EC2), and Diomede Storage is offering its own cloud service with a twist: online storage where you can monitor the power consumption of each file and act accordingly.
Below are four video highlights from the roundtable that followed the demos. In the first video, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff argues that “we are on the threshold of fundamentally a new paradigm of computing.” He defines cloud computing both as as software-as-a-service and as platform-as-a-service (and judging by how many cloud platforms were represented at the event, it seems like everyone wants to be the latter).
In the second video, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels explains why Amazon is in the cloud computing business in the first place, and says that overall for cloud computing in general: “This is still Day One.” We talked a lot about how enterprise apps are starting to look more and more like consumer Web apps, partly because they are both being built on similar back-end cloud architectures. But in the third video, Google’s Vic Gundotra takes exception to the idea that enterprise apps mimicking consumer apps is anything new.
And in the final video, Ning CEO Gina Bianchini talks about the importance of video in the cloud and FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit talks about how consumers don’t care where all the data and applications are stored, but that applications on different cloud platforms nevertheless have to be able to seamlessly interact with each other. (As a side note, the reason I am on a video screen in some of these clips is because I joined the event remotely).
To watch the video highlights, just click through the playlist below. For those interested in watching more, you can watch the entire three hours of the event here.
” [...] FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit talks about how consumers don’t care where all the data and applications are stored [...]”
-> He’s right. But the solution is NOT to throw our data just ANYWHERE.
Consumers today need a lot of education about what it means to their future privacy to be as naive as they have been until today.
I believe the wake up call will come one day. For sure.
I believe the solution is not to store all our data on centralized servers of 1 commercial company (Google, Facebook, etc.) but in a “distributed” way.
-> Everybody should be able to keep their data on THEIR computer and KEEP the complete control over it. (Anything else is not sane.)
I am not sure whether organizations would like to store their data on centralized servers some thousands of kilometers far away in an another country. Cloud computing has many issues which are required to be addressed. Cloud computing organizations would have to disclose and enter in to legal terms with individual users relating to usage of their data. Personal desktops will stay. Clouds will never substitute the desktops.
is it now naive to allow one group of people, and one group of hardware to have the control of thousands of peoples work?… idk.. this might benefit a few, but this concept of cloud computing is going to restrict freedom of work
well i agree with you ..but i do believe it will work with some people
I feel that the solution is not 2 store all our data on centralized servers of 1 commercial company..
I totally agree with the previous comments. Just consider personal medical records… Who would want personal medical information exposed to the eyes of strangers? Private companies? *NO WAY,* *the government?* *No way in hell* –This is why Microsoft Vault, Google Health and hundreds of other companies have failed with this “brilliant” idea….
No way it’s just buzz and hype
Exactly.
The cloud is NOT “the new dotcom”. The cloud is the new web 2.0.
i.e. It’s a meaningless buzzword for a concept that’s been around for years and will go out of fashion in about 18 months.
Also. Anyone who uses the word “paradigm” in a presentation needs to be shot.
this is really stupid. I am a senior partner with a large health and medical information provider company and, although we have [in-house, of course] state-of-the-art software and hardware, redundancy, roll-overs, firewalls, etc. our data is stolen every day by hackers from China, South Korea, Russia, etc
Even the Pentagon systems are hacked about twice a month or more often, these bozos are telling people that “it doesn’t matter where you store your data??????”
Incredible stupidity….
Good point. With centralized expertise, cloud operators may be better equipped to guard against hackers.
Actually, I think the notion that where data are stored is immaterial makes sense from a certain perspective.
As Kevin just said, they are dealing with security issues in spite of having state-of-the-art technology.
Now, if you are a start-up who cannot afford to invest into professional security solutions, the risk of storing the data on your PCs and having it subsequently stolen is probably not entirely different from the risk of having the data stored externally with the potential risk of unauthorized access to it.
If Kevin is right and Pentagon does indeed get hacked twice a month, what chance do small business owners have?
And if the risks are the same, why spend money on local data storage solutions when you can have it stored externally, in addition to saving costs by using free software (for example, Google Docs as opposed to MS Office)?
I am inclined to agree. But, a long way to go for it though, in terms of corporate acceptance of trusting their data ‘outside’.
Its just amazing the comments here. The people who have never owned or worked in a normal brick and mortar business have no conception of how vital a companies data is or how important it’s security is. Just goes to show what a bubble so many web heads have grown up in.
There are a few other true cloud apps out there, including the one we just started 3 months ago called Nefsis, a video conferencing app for business in the cloud. Ours is a true cloud application using our own technology, check out the ‘how it works’ on the website for more detail.
It’s so unusual that this concept is just now suddenly getting talked about. It’s been pretty “when” scenario for some time in terms of the web.
The whole “cloud” thing just seems like more buzz stuff, like “Web 2.0″, which is slowly dying.
Are there any plans to post the video of the actual demos from the event? The Ustream video only contains the roundtable. I have a few customers and friends who would like to see BrowserMob’s presentation on Friday.
As a side note, I’m also pretty annoyed with the definition of the “cloud” expanding so quickly. “Cloud computing” should be limited to large scale, elastic access to resources (human and electronic). Simply being online or having a software platform does not necessarily make you a “cloud” offering.
I was very disappointed that there was no discussing of Mechanical Turk and human intelligence and how it could revolutionize certain businesses in the future.
I agree. Although intriguing, let’s call it “cloudy, tricky and useless” at this time.
My guess is that Gina Bianchini [Ning] may share perspectives with Marc Andreesen, while talking to Charlie Rose about the NY Times’ print edition –”you’ve got to kill it! you’ve got to kill it! you’ve got to kill it!”
It would make sense in the pure business approach, but it is far, far from reality.
All new revolutionary ideas have been initially rejected by the so called “experts” in the field, such as the ones who have posted their comments in this page. Impossible is nothing!
I see… what you are saying is that we all should embrace the unproven, just in case it works, somehow, in the future?
Neat. This concept has been around for many years, used particularly by those who start cults.
For many entrepreneurs, including myself, hope is always part of a viable concept, most often supported by VC money.
Now, blind faith is a totally different animal, familiar to those who have no clue and aspire to come up with the next Google.
Sorry, but if your business premise is “impossible is nothing” –I would agree with you, again, you start with nothing and you’ll end up with nothing…
I thought this was fitting: http://www.yout...h?v=Ss02sfQinxI
Is there a contact list available (emails) for those who participated in the “Whose Cloud is it Anyway” Conference?
-Joe
I would like to commend TechCrunch for arranging both the live feed on Friday and the archive. It is great to have a forum on the next computing paradigm.
we are on the threshold of fundamentally a new paradigm of computing
Maybe I’m an old timer, but years ago cloud computing was called “webhosting”.
Back in the day, we used to hire a company to “host” our website. You could choose between several types of plans; some very inexpensive plans, that were on a “shared server” or monthly plans that cost more on a “dedicated” server. You could build your own server and locate it at their facility. You would pay each month based on usage.
Because of competition between these hosts, prices came down dramatically. While sometimes these webhosts would have power outages or an unexpected loss of bandwidth, the better hosts had uptimes that streched well into the six sigma range.
Sometimes, if we didn’t trust our data to a webhost, we would actually host our own servers on company property. We used to hire trained people to run our “server farms”.
While it was more costly to create these server farms, it gave us piece of mind because we were in complete control of our data and our customers accounts. If something went wrong it was our fault and we didn’t have to call someone elses 800 number.
Can people not see that by relying more and more on cloud services we are following in the same footsteps of the financial system that has caused the housing crisis?
http://www.huyng.com/?p=80
I think the next person who figures out how to allow users to maintain control of their data while letting developers easily create web services from that data will win.
It makes me reluctant to adopt all these “cloud services” because content that you spend countless of hours producing is ultimately not under your control.
I think they explained it well. Cloud computing is still something the average joe does not adequately understand. It’s got a tremendous amount of potential once data security/privacy is sorted out. justaskgemalto is where I read up on digital security issues.
(As a side note, the reason I am on a video screen in some of these clips is because I joined the event remotely).
What service were you using to do this? On your side and at the event?
Is cloud computing good for USA jobs?
Since the hosting is managed locally, does that keep jobs in the US, as opposed to shipping them to India?
Any other job impact?
“Is cloud computing good for USA jobs?” is a fascinating question, and I can think of at least two reasons why the answer is “no”:
1. I know there are companies in Canada that profit from the fact that they are NOT in the USA. Many non-North-American companies actually insist that their data not reside in the USA to avoid US laws.
2. One of the benefits of cloud computing is that it lowers the costs and energy consumption of data centres, so by definition, they attempt to reduce the overall number of employees. But like manufacturing jobs, you could argue that rather than baby-sitting HDDs, those people could instead create way more wealth by creating the next Yahoo or Google…
nsfw cloud good form some tasks only. {seesmic_video:{”url_thumbnail”:{”value”:”http://t.seesmic.com/thumbnail/x9wEuvmKlH_th1.jpg”}”title”:{”value”:”nsfw cloud good form some tasks only. ”}”videoUri”:{”value”:”http://www.seesmic.com/video/HdHOeGzxW8″}}}
So, Can we call all the new web apps built around cloud by the name web 3.0
good talk.. looking forward
If I read all the comments, it seems the main issue with cloud computing seems to be data privacy and security.
However I also read experience guys criticizing cloud computing while admitting that their data stored on their servers gets stolen anyway.
Isn’t there a way where my data gets split into small pieces that are all meaningless if taken separately and these pieces are stored on unrelated servers with different providers and I’m the only one to have the key to re-aggregate the pieces. Then what I have to protect is my key + the knowledge of where the different pieces are stored.
Interesting video.
The cloud is huge, but calling it the next ‘dot com’ may be a bit extreme.
Mobile commerce and mobile banking need cloud computing badly. Whether banks will agree is another matter altogether. Maybe we will see this happen for folks like Bancnet and the Indian cooperative banks. Something’s gotta give for mbanking to move ahead and that is certainly time, cost and effort.
Mobile commerce and mobile banking need cloud computing badly. Whether banks will agree is another matter altogether. Maybe we will see this happen for folks like Bancnet and the Indian cooperative banks. Something’s gotta give for mbanking to move ahead and that is certainly time, cost and effort.
How does Cloud support Web 3.0?
It’s interesting to see all these uses of Cloud services. GoEverywhere is a great source for small businesses as it allows employees to work from any computer, office, laptop or client location. You get
easy, simplified access to your files on Google Docs, Zoho, and Preezo – and you can keep your own secure documents in Safe Files via Box.net.