Hey You, Get Off-ah My Cloud!

Who would have thought that a Rolling Stones song written almost 50 years ago could become a technology cliché (or battle cry) a half-century later. Yesterday, research firm Gartner Inc. said that by 2014, The Personal Cloud will replace the Personal Computer as the Center of the Users’ Digital Lives. The Cloud has come a long way in a few years – quickly going from some nebulous thing based on virtualization that everyone tried to define to the Center of our Digital Lives. This does not necessarily mean the death of the PC, personal computer that is, it just means that the focus will be on the devices, leveraging each device strength, how we use various/different devices daily and deliver the content based on that context. Since we’ll be able to get to our stuff, all our stuff, on whatever device we have at the time, we’ll be happier and more productive.

OK, what’s the bad news? This will require IT to completely rethink how they deliver applications and services to users yet again.

According to Gartner’s Press Release:

Several driving forces are combining to create this new era. These megatrends have roots that extend back through the past decade but are aligning in a new way.
Megatrend No. 1: Consumerization — You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Gartner has discussed the consumerization of IT for the better part of a decade, and has seen the impact of it across various aspects of the corporate IT world. However, much of this has simply been a precursor to the major wave that is starting to take hold across all aspects of information technology as several key factors come together:

Users are more technologically savvy and have very different expectations of technology.

The Internet and social media have empowered and emboldened users.

The rise of powerful, affordable mobile devices changes the equation for users. Users have become innovators.

Through the democratization of technology, users of all types and status within organizations can now have similar technology available to them.

Megatrend No. 2: Virtualization — Changing How the Game Is Played
Virtualization has improved flexibility and increased the options for how IT organizations can implement client environments. Virtualization has, to some extent, freed applications from the peculiarities of individual devices, operating systems or even processor architectures. Virtualization provides a way to move the legacy of applications and processes developed in the PC era forward into the new emerging world. This provides low-power devices access to much-greater processing power, thus expanding their utility and increasing the reach of processor-intensive applications.
Megatrend No. 3: "App-ification" — From Applications to Apps
When the way that applications are designed, delivered and consumed by users changes, it has a dramatic impact on all other aspects of the market. These changes will have a profound impact on how applications are written and managed in corporate environments. They also raise the prospect of greater cross-platform portability as small user experience (UX) apps are used to adjust a server- or cloud-resident application to the unique characteristics of a specific device or scenario. One application can now be exposed in multiple ways and used in varying situations by the user.
Megatrend No. 4: The Ever-Available Self-Service Cloud
The advent of the cloud for servicing individual users opens a whole new level of opportunity. Every user can now have a scalable and nearly infinite set of resources available for whatever they need to do. The impacts for IT infrastructures are stunning, but when this is applied to the individual, there are some specific benefits that emerge. Users' digital activities are far more self-directed than ever before. Users demand to make their own choices about applications, services and content, selecting from a nearly limitless collection on the Internet. This encourages a culture of self-service that users expect in all aspects of their digital experience. Users can now store their virtual workspace or digital personality online.
Megatrend No. 5: The Mobility Shift — Wherever and Whenever You Want
Today, mobile devices combined with the cloud can fulfill most computing tasks, and any tradeoffs are outweighed in the minds of the user by the convenience and flexibility provided by the mobile devices. The emergence of more-natural user interface experiences is making mobility practical. Touch- and gesture-based user experiences, coupled with speech and contextual awareness, are enabling rich interaction with devices and a much greater level of freedom. At any point in time, and depending on the scenario, any given device will take on the role of the user's primary device — the one at the center of the user's constellation of devices.
"The combination of these megatrends, coupled with advances in new enabling technologies, is ushering in the era of the personal cloud," said Mr. Kleynhans. "In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared in the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself."

Of course I immediately thought of Pigpen with his cloud of dust following him around or that we will all have those ‘thinking’ balloons around us wherever we go.

At least we can keep the acronym.

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