'Cloud computing' is this year's fashion, especially now that the term has been expanded to mean "using any online application." So if you've been using Hotmail for the past decade or so, then you've actually been cloud computing without knowing it — as have several hundred million of your computer-illiterate friends and relations. However, the range of online applications is expanding, so there's now a good chance that you have tried online word processors, spreadsheets, project management or even CRM (customer relationship management) services as well.
But that isn't the whole story. The other side of "cloud computing" is the provision of clusters of servers that make it quicker and easier for companies to launch web-based applications. This is something that Amazon pioneered with its EC2 (Elastic Computing Cloud) service. Google has its AppEngine, and Microsoft is unveiling a cloud computing service at its Professional Developer Conference 2008 in Los Angeles this week.
Amazon resources
If you're a lone programmer or web startup and you want to offer an application online, you no longer have to buy or rent server hardware and set up complicated networking — and you certainly don't need to finance the capital cost. Instead, you can load your application onto Amazon's servers, and just pay reasonable fees for usage. This is a fantastic advantage in tight economic circumstances.
For users, email is by far the most common online application, thanks partly to the success of Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Google's Gmail goes further in encouraging people to use Google's online word processor, spreadsheet, and calendar. If someone sends a document to your Gmail address, for example, you can choose to open it in Google Docs.
The main advantages of Google Docs are that you can share files with other people without emailing them around — or using Microsoft's Office Live Workspace — and that the service is free. Also, using an online service means you don't have to install or look after a desktop application, plus your work is backed up on Google's servers.
But there are disadvantages, too. Google's applications are like old Microsoft Office applications but much less powerful and slower (including communications delays).
Teething troubles
Although Google Docs can handle simple Microsoft Word files, I've found it generally can't handle commercial documents with multiple columns, heading typefaces, embedded photographs, captions and footnotes: usually they display incorrectly, and the pagination changes. Also, Google still doesn't handle the new Office Open XML file formats from Office 2007.
Of course, not everyone needs all these features, but many businesses do.
Another two online office suites go further than Google in competing with Microsoft Office. These are ThinkFree Office and Zoho. ThinkFree Office (thinkfree.com) is written in Java and offers Write, Calc and Show for Windows, Mac OS X and Ubuntu. It's a good suite for everyday use. Thinkfree also offers an online Workspace.
The Zoho Office Suite (Zoho.com) offers far more business applications: Writer, Sheet, Show, Docs, DB and Reports, Notebook, Planner, Creator (a database), CRM, People (human resources), Invoice, Business, Marketplace, Wiki, Chat, Mail and Meeting (web conferencing). Zoho also has a widget that lets you run programs on your desktop. However, it charges for some uses: for example, Zoho Projects lets you plan one free project, while Zoho Invoice offers five invoices free. US giant General Electric is a Zoho user.
The 37Signals site is also worth a look.
If you decide to go with an online service, you must keep your own copies of all the documents and files you have online, in case you are cut off. For example, Google thought Nick Saber had done something wrong and disabled his account — meaning lost access to Google Talk instant messaging, Google Docs, and his photos on Google's Picasa.
Although a "single sign-on" identity is attractive, it does mean you're putting all your eggs in one basket.
You can also lose all your email if your account is hacked and someone changes your password. This happened to Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, on Yahoo. The hacker didn't guess her password, but asked for the password to be reset then guessed the answers to her security questions.
Further, you can lose access if either the online software or your browser or operating system software changes in some unexpected way that leaves you unable to log on. This has happened to me.
Tied in or turfed out?
Finally, many people have lost access to online files when a service failed or was closed down. If that happens to you, don't expect the Inland Revenue or large customers to be overly sympathetic.
Even if you can still access your work online, you can be locked in to a service because it may be hard or impossible to move all your files to an alternative. Richard Stallman, founder of the modern free software movement (which led to Linux) and the Free Software Foundation, recently claimed that cloud computing was a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign," he told the Guardian.
I'm not that hostile. Nevertheless, the current hype for cloud computing does tend to portray online apps as solving all problems, and that's not the case. Schofield's First Law — which says you should never put data into any application unless you can see exactly how to get it out — applies to cloud computing just as much as to desktop applications.
When the clouds burst
One of the arguments for the server side of cloud computing is that it's more reliable, because applications are run on clusters of hundreds or even thousands of machines. This is true, but doesn't mean cloud-based services never fail. Amazon, for example, has suffered two outages this year, taking down lots of the start-ups who see cloud computing as a quick, cheap way to get a web-based application to a global scale. Which it is. But it's not invulnerable.
There is no doubt that cloud computing is going to grow, as more and more services are launched, and as current services become more powerful. Online applications are particularly useful if you need to collaborate (share files) with other people, especially if you don't all work in the same office. They will also appeal where you don't use applications very often, so their inherent slowness doesn't add up to a noticeable loss of time compared with using faster desktop programs.
But bear in mind that you're only safe if you keep copies of all your important files — both online and offline — in two places, rather than one. Your business may well depend on it.
