After computer, comes power to communicate

• The computer age as we know it is over and in its place runs a new paradigm — the power to communicate.

The trendiest phrase in the geek world today is “cloud computing”, which is an evolution that basically means that technology users no longer hold physically onto their data and applications in the machines at their offices, but rather have it all centrally stored in a virtual world (the clouds).

For businesses that deploy this technology, it means accessing office files through the internet from anywhere in the world.

The computer age as we know it is over and in its place runs a new paradigm — the power to communicate.

Whatever way you look at it, the greatest benefit we derive from a computing machine (which includes hand-held devices like the iPhone and Blackberry) is not in how efficient it processes some command we assign it, but how fast it connects to information stored in servers or super computers thousands of miles away from the user.

The computer then becomes a mere terminal or what the industry calls a thin client (as opposed to a fat client which has software and data stuffed in its hard drive).

As a virtual monitor, the thin client need not have a large storage capacity or high processing power. What is critical is the connection speed or bandwidth capacity to link to the remote applications.

This concept is not entirely new. People access web-based e-mail on centralised servers. We save our CVs, reports and other documents in folders yet we do not know exactly where the “cloud store” is as long as we can retrieve them when we need them from anywhere in the world.

Google Apps offers an array of integrated applications like an online calendar, e-mail, spreadsheet and word processor for free to businesses and individuals (the premium edition comes with a price, though).

Collectively referred to as collaboration tools, these user-friendly applications allow people to communicate and do business without having to worry about costs and maintenance of the software that runs the programmes.

Google allows free storage space of up to 2 GB, but those who need more, 10 GB is offered at $50 a year. And the providers of these services ensure they are available on a 99.9 per cent uptime.

Google, Netsuite, salesforce.com, Amazon.com, Microsoft, Taleo, Omniture, Hyperic and other providers of cloud computing benefit largely from advertising and e-business operations (marketing, call centre, sales, etc).

They promise a seamless, web-based customer relationship management system which needs no administrator to upgrade software, run an antivirus or configure a user profile. Everything is served buffet style, on a do-it-yourself basis.

And as usual, the story is told in many a tech-phrase and acronym — software as a service (SaaS, service-oriented architecture and on-demand computing.

The companies hosting these services will of course charge the end-user subscription fee for software, especially to serious businesses that must be assured of security for the information they deposit on off-site servers.

The software should then cost less since it is on a shared platform. Should this virtualisation trend continue to become the model of doing business, what happens to software developers like SAP and Oracle, that have long provided customised products to business? Will they also start offering a one-size fit for all solutions?