'Personal Cloud' to replace PC by 2014, says Gartner

Asif Dasl

DevilWAH wrote: »

I always chuckle when people say it more open to hackers. no its not if you chose the right one, some allow you to run client side encryption which means its possible more secure. second even if not as long as the data is encrypted in transit and you use a reputable host then they will ave plenty more security than the standard home network has. NAS box in the cupboard, you get malware on you desktop and its possible the most hackable storage in the work. And that's with out the fact that if your house burns down you lose your data to.

As for having to download it all over again, this is not CLOUD, this is storage. Google Doc's is a cloud service, you never download the information to your device, Google servers render the content to active webpage and send that. This is when the "cloud" come in to its own, it is not a storage technology or idea. Online storage is online storage has been around for years and will continue to beso. The cloud is to do with manipulating data remotely, removing the CPU and Memory requirement from the local machine and in the process increasing the flexibility and efficiency.

Several points - If all of these cloud services are so safe then why have so many of them lost credit card details or other information - you could fill an entire wall with cases, Sony most notable etc.

I have a friend who uses a fire proof safe for all his irregular backups - even years and years ago. Not everybody is as careless. I know of quite a lot of businesses who do the same.

Maybe when ADSL or cable is 100Mb down, 100Mb up - then I can see cloud services for the mainstream. If everything is being calculated and stored in the cloud and only screen updates are being transfer then why are we increasing bandwidth for consumers?

And then if the cloud is so great then why are we not using it for TV?

veritas_libertas

RobertKaucher wrote: »

I don't understand... What's the dif between a docked laptop and a docked tablet? Provided the hardware can keep up, there is no reasson that we cannot get the same utility out of tablet devices that we do out of laptops and combining that with the cloudification of apps there is no reasson it won't take 1/2 the time for tablets to take over like laptops have to this point.

You just made my point, though I guess mine wasn't as clear as yours. I think it will happen, but not until the hardware is powerful enough, and docking stations are made to support a keyboard, mouse, and of course flash drives, etc. Apple is making this difficult, and Android is well, not there yet either.

DevilWAH

tpatt100 wrote: »

My wife's grandmother still hand writes letters to family. She said people still like the look and feel of paper. I remember the first one I got out of the mailbox and my wife said " oh she still likes to write".

I think the last hand written letter I got as years ago when my GF broke up with me. I figure now a days my wife will just post it on YouTube.

I still ride a push bike, and when you look at cars electric scooters or a segway you could argue that the bike has long since been surpassed as a form of trasnsport. why make the extra effort of cycling when I could get technology to put the effort in for me.

but it is always a question of what is required and what is available, to me a bike holds more benifits for getting to work than a car. And to be honest I enjoy it more than getting stuck in the traffic.

The trick is not to jump on to new technology just becasue its there, or to hold back until you desperately need it. At work I use a Laptop to write reports becasue its fast, neater and it correct my spelling (along with the other benifts word processors have). When I write to my mum I don't have the time pressures or the need to impress. There are different requirements that writing by hand meets better.

If a tool is fit for the job and nothing comes along that is signifently better then it will stay around for ever. The Car is a prime example, well over 100 years old it has not changed much, people have tried to suggest other(better) forms of transport but they have failed becasue the car does all that people need of it. The Table is not going to replace the laptop or desktop. I do not ever seeing myself writing code on an IPAD, or playing a racing sim on one either. Browsing the web and reading emails yes I can see them taking that share of the market, but for some tasks the Laptop is simply better and always will be due to the design. Yes you can dock a table to a keyboard and mouse but then that is a laptop and no longer a tablet.

It does not matter how old the technology is, only if there is any thing better around. The current crop of Cloud and tablets do some things better and will eat in to that market. Over the next few years they will pick up other bits as well as they develop. But if the Laptop is to be laid to rest and local processing is going to be completely moved to the cloud. It will require very different solutions and very different hardwear to what we are seeing at the moment.

tpatt100

Sites being compromised for credit card information is an issue with companies racing to increase accessibility and failing to address security issues. What Sony did was just being incompetent.

And how many home user PC's are used in DDOS attacks because they are compromised? Security is an issue everywhere not just for a certain method of data access and storage.

tpatt100

DevilWAH wrote: »

I still ride a push bike, and when you look at cars electric scooters or a segway you could argue that the bike has long since been surpassed as a form of trasnsport. why make the extra effort of cycling when I could get technology to put the effort in for me.

but it is always a question of what is required and what is available, to me a bike holds more benifits for getting to work than a car. And to be honest I enjoy it more than getting stuck in the traffic.

The trick is not to jump on to new technology just becasue its there, or to hold back until you desperately need it. At work I use a Laptop to write reports becasue its fast, neater and it correct my spelling (along with the other benifts word processors have). When I write to my mum I don't have the time pressures or the need to impress. There are different requirements that writing by hand meets better.

If a tool is fit for the job and nothing comes along that is signifently better then it will stay around for ever. The Car is a prime example, well over 100 years old it has not changed much, people have tried to suggest other(better) forms of transport but they have failed becasue the car does all that people need of it. The Table is not going to replace the laptop or desktop. I do not ever seeing myself writing code on an IPAD, or playing a racing sim on one either. Browsing the web and reading emails yes I can see them taking that share of the market, but for some tasks the Laptop is simply better and always will be due to the design. Yes you can dock a table to a keyboard and mouse but then that is a laptop and no longer a tablet.

It does not matter how old the technology is, only if there is any thing better around. The current crop of Cloud and tablets do some things better and will eat in to that market. Over the next few years they will pick up other bits as well as they develop. But if the Laptop is to be laid to rest and local processing is going to be completely moved to the cloud. It will require very different solutions and very different hardwear to what we are seeing at the moment.

I can't handwrite anymore, I'm serious lol. I know "how" to write with my hand but I cannot do it anymore. I have to really concentrate to hold a pen and make it move and form a complete sentence. I think because I have attention focusing issues typing allows my words to come out as fast as my mind wants to spit the words out. Where with hand writing it's like "too slow must move faster!!!1".

tpatt100

Asif Dasl wrote: »

And then if the cloud is so great then why are we not using it for TV?

Wait what?? Netflix? Xbox Marketplace for TV?

veritas_libertas

tpatt100 wrote: »

Wait what?? Netflix? Xbox Marketplace for TV?

LOL, so true. I haven't used broadcast or cable in years. Now, it is kind of annoying that broadcast TV hasn't moved to streaming yet. At least, not here in the US.

DevilWAH

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Several points - If all of these cloud services are so safe then why have so many of them lost credit card details or other information - you could fill an entire wall with cases, Sony most notable etc.

Not a cloud service, real cloud services separate indivuals data from each other so this kind of thing can't happen. online gaming networks and the likes of drp box are not cloud services. Think of Amazon/Microsoft and google cloud offering, and as below do you home work and take actions as you would if you stored your data at home.

Asif Dasl wrote: »

I have a friend who uses a fire proof safe for all his irregular backups - even years and years ago. Not everybody is as careless. I know of quite a lot of businesses who do the same.

but it don't help when the hard drive dies, he drops the disc carrying it across the room, or his kids tip a cup of juice over it.

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Maybe when ADSL or cable is 100Mb down, 100Mb up - then I can see cloud services for the mainstream. If everything is being calculated and stored in the cloud and only screen updates are being transfer then why are we increasing bandwidth for consumers?

Becasue people like to have more, becasue ISP need to keep selling to stay in business, they need to incress there customer base. they do this by lowering the price of there old service and introducing premier rate "faster" services. Simple marketing and advertising strategic. What application requires more than a 12mbs down load. that's streaming HD with ease, Online gaming you need no more than 1Mbyte as its only about latency and bandwidth makes no difference to that. And how many average people down load gigs of data regularly. The only people who down load vast amounts of data (ok there are some exceptions) are people who pirate it.

Asif Dasl wrote: »

And then if the cloud is so great then why are we not using it for TV?

[/QUOTE]

You have not hear of BBC Iplayer, then? or 4OD, ITV player..... all cloud based streaming on-line broadcasting...

DevilWAH

veritas_libertas wrote: »

LOL, so true. I haven't used broadcast or cable in years. Now, it is kind of annoying that broadcast TV hasn't moved to streaming yet. At least, not here in the US.

I am quite shocked by that. The BBC has a great streaming and back catalogued interface.

tpatt100

veritas_libertas wrote: »

LOL, so true. I haven't used broadcast or cable in years. Now, it is kind of annoying that broadcast TV hasn't moved to streaming yet. At least, not here in the US.

Yeah I got an OTA antenna installed last year and TiVo. I bought a season pass for Walking Dead on AMC on my Xbox and the DVD set for Game of Thrones. Still a ton cheaper than paying for cable.

N2IT

tpatt100 wrote: »

Yeah I got an OTA antenna installed last year and TiVo. I bought a season pass for Walking Dead on AMC on my Xbox and the DVD set for Game of Thrones. Still a ton cheaper than paying for cable.

They killed Shane! JK

Nice set up!

I'm straight netflixs or video's from the iPad. I have a PS3 I can stream from as well.

tpatt100

N2IT wrote: »

They killed Shane! JK

Nice set up!

I'm straight netflixs or video's from the iPad. I have a PS3 I can stream from as well.

Yeah I am getting lazy with DVDs I ripped all of my sons sesame street DVDs and Pixar movies and put a 500gb hard drive in my ps3 and dumped all of them on there.

I check amazon for sales on new kids movies and buy them for ripping. Then I put a few in the car for the DVD player in there for road trips.

N2IT

tpatt100 wrote: »

Yeah I am getting lazy with DVDs I ripped all of my sons sesame street DVDs and Pixar movies and put a 500gb hard drive in my ps3 and dumped all of them on there.

I check amazon for sales on new kids movies and buy them for ripping. Then I put a few in the car for the DVD player in there for road trips.

How does your PS3 run with the new hard drive? My fan runs a little bit more since the drive is 7200 from a 5400. I went from a 120 gb to a 320 myself. Were you shocked when you replaced the drive and the image download on the system immediately? I was thinking this is sweet.

tpatt100

I am not a fan of the ps3 slim compared to the original ps3. Major reason is it seems the fan is always on when it is running. The quietness of the original ps3 made me use it more for streaming and watching movies because the 360 was loud also.

I then got this bright idea to sell my ps3 on eBay because it was selling for more than what I paid for it. I sold it for a 150 dollar profit and bought a slim. Yeah its noisy anyways. I checked the vents to make sure they were not clogged.

RobertKaucher

DevilWAH wrote: »

I am quite shocked by that. The BBC has a great streaming and back catalogued interface.

I think you guys are misunderstanding each other... the major networks here in the US have been streaming in the way the BBC does for years as well. I think Veritas had another idea in mind more like the way radio stations do.

veritas_libertas

RobertKaucher wrote: »

I think you guys are misunderstanding each other... the major networks here in the US have been streaming in the way the BBC does for years as well. I think Veritas had another idea in mind more like the way radio stations do.

Quite right, the old bunny ears if that clarifies anything. I wish this would happen, but I know they are stuck in doing it the way it has always been done. Similar problem to that of Verizon, Charter, etc. that think to survive they have to continue selling Cable TV and POTS phone lines.

chopsticks

It's one big round circle to begin at where we have begun. From centralised mainframe computing, to distributed ones, back to centralised computing again?

tpatt100

chopsticks wrote: »

It's one big round circle to begin at where we have begun. From centralised mainframe computing, to distributed ones, back to centralised computing again?

Yeah before it was because mainframes were the only computers and desktop computing was expensive and not common. Then it switched and now we are back again.

Except it's more about accessibility but mostly in my opinion it's about controlling the access of content to increase profit capability.

Asif Dasl

DevilWAH wrote: »

Becasue people like to have more, becasue ISP need to keep selling to stay in business, they need to incress there customer base. they do this by lowering the price of there old service and introducing premier rate "faster" services. Simple marketing and advertising strategic. What application requires more than a 12mbs down load. that's streaming HD with ease, Online gaming you need no more than 1Mbyte as its only about latency and bandwidth makes no difference to that. And how many average people down load gigs of data regularly. The only people who down load vast amounts of data (ok there are some exceptions) are people who pirate it.

I don't buy that, it hugely expensive to lay all this fiber optic about. If we are all moving to the cloud then upload speeds should increase and they are not 1:1 Also people who download vast amounts of data these days are probably big Netflix users (Netflix is the biggest data transfer in the US if I recall correctly) or they are businesses which use cloud services...

Earlier I was taking about live TV streaming not after schedule catch up like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, etc, should have been clearer my bad. The SuperBowl was streamed live for the first time last month - complete disaster. I was watching it, not HD, laggy, minutes behind actually play - it's not scalable. And netflix? Nowhere near BluRay quality...

chopsticks wrote: »

It's one big round circle to begin at where we have begun. From centralised mainframe computing, to distributed ones, back to centralised computing again?

Very well put - and this is the thing for me - I don't think this whole cloud thing is scalable. I've uploaded stuff to SkyDrive and it's not maxing out my upload - there is a queue, I've tried it several times. What happens when we are ALL in the cloud? And when you put it like the statement above, it seems like a backward step in some ways...

DevilWAH

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Earlier I was taking about live TV streaming not after schedule catch up like BBC iPlayer, Hulu, etc, should have been clearer my bad.

Umm Iplayer does stream all the BBC channels live as well as there catch up service. BBC iPlayer - Watch Live - BBC One for example.

DevilWAH

Asif Dasl wrote: »

If we are all moving to the cloud then upload speeds should increase and they are not 1:1

The reason behind the low upload speeds is due to the fact people don't want to have to buy expensive modems and equipment for there house. Exchanges are able to send data much more efficiently than the average users home network can and as most people want high download speeds this is what the ISP's tune the services how they do. Look up how ADSL works and you will find out why there is not a one to one speed, basically more of the frequency is given to downloads. You can get 1:1 connections they are called "SDL" rather than ASDL, they are also far more expensive.

And can you stop referring to things like SKydrive, this is not a cloud technology!!! Cloud technologies do not! that's DO NOT! transfer files between the internet and the users PC. A client device for Cloud service does not require and storage space apart from to store the OS.

Windows Live is a cloud service. there is no need for you to ever download an email file to your PC, windows live displays it as a web page.

dropbox, skydrive, are online storage solutions. (the do have some cloud features), buts they are not cloud solutions.

Google docs (the web based applications part), Microsoft 360, and Amazon cloud do have more cloud features. but currently there are very few real cloud solutions around, especially for the home consumer.

RobertKaucher

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Very well put - and this is the thing for me - I don't think this whole cloud thing is scalable. I've uploaded stuff to SkyDrive and it's not maxing out my upload - there is a queue, I've tried it several times. What happens when we are ALL in the cloud? And when you put it like the statement above, it seems like a backward step in some ways...

So you believe that the bandwidth we have now is all we will ever have? If you just look at SPDY I can tell you that there are innovative ways of dealing with the current limits and what we have to day will not be all we will ever have. The large companies know this and are working towards it:
Cisco Blog » Blog Archive » The Dawn of the Zettabyte Era [INFOGRAPHIC]

Asif Dasl

DevilWAH wrote: »

Umm Iplayer does stream all the BBC channels live as well as there catch up service. BBC iPlayer - Watch Live - BBC One for example.

Not in the same quality and you know that yourself, you try watching Match Of The Day live... the greatest blurry crap you ever seen, "who just kicked that ball?" "Dunno a blob..." I had to watch it one day when the cable went

DevilWAH wrote: »

And can you stop referring to things like SKydrive, this is not a cloud technology!!! Cloud technologies do not! that's DO NOT! transfer files between the internet and the users PC. A client device for Cloud service does not require and storage space apart from to store the OS.

Eh? Well, they are seen as cloud services by almost everyone who uses them... it does say SkyDrive? Why do you think they included the SkyDrive App in Windows 8? I'll bet you £100 that they mention this on launch day... "keep your files in the cloud, access them anywhere" just watch

RobertKaucher wrote: »

So you believe that the bandwidth we have now is all we will ever have? If you just look at SPDY I can tell you that there are innovative ways of dealing with the current limits and what we have to day will not be all we will ever have. The large companies know this and are working towards it:

No I don't believe that, I think bandwidth will get faster and faster cause we will be downloading more and more - not living in the cloud. But IF everything is going to be in the cloud and we are not transfering files and only getting screen updates through the browser - then why do we need 100Mb bandwidth?

And this is the thing - I've tried several times to pin down what the cloud means and as far as I can see it means different things to different people...

DevilWAH

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Eh? Well, they are seen as cloud services by almost everyone who uses them... it does say SkyDrive? Why do you think they included the SkyDrive App in Windows 8? I'll bet you £100 that they mention this on launch day... "keep your files in the cloud, access them anywhere" just watch

becasue marketing maybe! becasue it is seen ass hip at the moment to talk about cloud and they know 99% of the public dont have a clue about the cloud and what it means and the idea behind the "Cloud revolution". Exactly the same reason that advertising people say every thing, and jump on every band wagon they can.

Asif Dasl

DevilWAH wrote: »

becasue marketing maybe! becasue it is seen ass hip at the moment to talk about cloud and they know 99% of the public dont have a clue about the cloud and what it means and the idea behind the "Cloud revolution". Exactly the same reason that advertising people say every thing, and jump on every band wagon they can.

Yup it's become a buzz word that nobody can pin down what the hell it is - it means different things to different people. Your idea of cloud is not my idea of cloud and a consumer view of cloud will be different again...

DevilWAH

Asif Dasl wrote: »

Yup it's become a buzz word that nobody can pin down what the hell it is - it means different things to different people. Your idea of cloud is not my idea of cloud and a consumer view of cloud will be different again...

This is where you are wrong, cloud has/had a very straight forward meaning, to remove all processing of the data to a decentralised on-line platform and retaining dumb terminals to access the data.

Just becasue the media has got the wrong end of the stick, and advertisers jump on the band wagon to get them products in the limelight. Does not mean the underlying ideal has changed.

The cloud that companies like AMazon and indeed the company I work for are developing fits this core ideal, and is the solution the large corporate business are look at. They already run multi global hosted data centres. they are look at the next step. where they no longer are looking at purchasing the datacenter and the hardware inside it. but just a virtual solution that has no physical sustenance.

Asif Dasl

DevilWAH wrote: »

This is where you are wrong, cloud has/had a very straight forward meaning, to remove all processing of the data to a decentralised on-line platform and retaining dumb terminals to access the data.

I am wrong and by extension Microsoft is wrong? And I bet the company your working for uses the word "cloud" and we have at least 2 different means no? It's a buzz word end of... I blame VMware

RobertKaucher

Asif Dasl wrote: »

No I don't believe that, I think bandwidth will get faster and faster cause we will be downloading more and more - not living in the cloud. But IF everything is going to be in the cloud and we are not transfering files and only getting screen updates through the browser - then why do we need 100Mb bandwidth?

Video, voice, and music.

RobertKaucher

Two things to add: After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses - NYTimes.com

and to be clear when people use terms like "replace" when discussing technology, they don't mean it in the sense that every single instance of X is going to go away and be replaced by Y. What they mean is that it will become ubiquitous. I don't think any one here would argue that the car has not "replaced" the horse and buggy, yet if you travel to rural areas of my state you will find communities of Amish who still use the horse and buggy. 64 bit processors are certainly ubiquitous in computer systems today, but if you walk around most companies you will find hidden in some corner a Pentium system running Windows 3.11 that has some $1200 piece of software that no one can figure out how to port to a modern OS. Certainly not *everything* will go to the cloud in a decade. That's not what we are arguing. I mean, there are still communities in the world that live predominantly hunter-gatherer, stone-age life style. That does not make the impact of "cloud-based" systems any less important. All of my household's digital media has moved to the cloud. We have Hulu+, Netflix, and Amazon's cloud service with 2 laptops and 3 tablets. My sister's household is going the same direction. They just purchased two Kindle Fires. For consumers, which is what this thread is really about - a "personal cloud" - that is where things are clearly going. I'm not even sure why this is a topic of any real discussion on the consumer level. We are nearly already there.

Here is something a little more concrete: http://www.fastcompany.com/1824730/follow-up-the-pcs-end-hoves-into-view

msteinhilber

We're going to be making a push into some form of cloud storage sometime soon. Our industry is real estate, and our Realtors are constantly going out and buying the latest gear. Digital signatures on a PDF via an iPad or other tablet are becoming more common and as a result agents are able to do more out of the office and are having more of a need to have data available on their tablet, smartphone, laptop, etc.

Will it replace the PC? For some maybe, others not likely - depends on ones needs. Even if my needs were minimal I wouldn't use any other "cloud" other than that which I create and administer myself - I just hate having my data and/or services resting in the hands of a third party and much prefer the DIY route.