Google says Welcome to the Cloud

Google says ‘Welcome to Cloud City’ | Successful Workplace: "The Chromebook Pixel represents a step towards a completely cloud-based future, so much so that I’m willing to bet that in the next 5 years it will usher in Cloud Cities; towns and communities where the entire population have fully embraced an always on, mobile and cloud based infrastructure. . . . But other consumer companies are moving this way too. Sony recently announced its strategy for streaming and online gaming services with its PS4: the acquisition of GaiKai was a major play in this direction (although whether they pull it off is another matter). Apple has been tinkering with its little “hobby”, the AppleTV, and for a while now, Netflix and Spotify dominate streaming media. Microsoft today updated its Office 365 Pro packages and Amazon has integrated Cloud Player into Ford SYNC’s Applink platform. Physical media is dying, even flash storage will become a museum piece in 5 years once cloud infrastructure and networking become robust, fast and reliable.Light and lean technologies and operating systems are becoming defacto standards and with them come ever increasing pushes towards the cloud. And we all know that when a consumer trend becomes mainstream the enterprise will surely follow. For larger organizations, the 5 year prediction will come and go without incident. I’m still working with companies stuck with Windows NT for example but for SMEs willing to embrace cloud it’ll be a reality. Google knows what it’s doing. Five years from now, whole cities will be entirely cloud based. . . ."

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Yahoo! News (blog)

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