Has the WebOS Finally Arrived? 227
SphereOfInfluence writes "Dion Hinchcliffe over on ZDNet declared in a new post that the Web OS has finally arrived and that businesses and IT departments must adjust to the fact that everything's starting to move to the cloud. He cites John Hagel's so-called big business shifts of the 21st century and claims cloud computing, crowdsourcing, open APIs, Software-as-a-Service are the future of the workplace. He goes on to present a compelling visual model of the Web OS circa 2009 and examples to back up some of the statements."
slow news day? (Score:3, Informative)
Cloud ftw (Score:1, Informative)
The cloud does not interact with the computer, it needs a layer such as the browser, networking stack, and kernel. So, "web desktop" would seem to be correct.
techno-buzzword salad (Score:4, Informative)
diskless != cloud Not quite the same (Score:2, Informative)
"Diskless workstation" typically is either a "lots-o-ram/no disk/bootstraps over LAN" system or a "glass tty" or "smart glass tty" system. The difference being on a smart system significant local computation related to the application at hand occurs beyond just i/o.
The interface to the cloud, the web browser, is a "smart glass tty" system. However, it typically lives side-by-side with other things like local applications, local or at least non-cloud printers and other i/o devices, and other "smart glass ttys" i.e. web browsers and "less smart" ttys such as Windows Remote Terminal Services Client, ssh, telnet, etc.
One reasonable prediction is that businesses will continue to commoditize their employee's workstations, and give them access to resources either on their local LAN or in an external cloud based on their job function. The idea is if their computer hardware or base operating system breaks, you can just drop-replace it with a spare and have them back up and running very quickly. For many companies, this day is already here for most of their employees.
Re:slow news day? (Score:2, Informative)
beyond the hype? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Backend mining (Score:4, Informative)
If you encrypt it, data mining isnt a concern.
Saas = Software as a SUBSCRIPTION (Score:4, Informative)
Do I need to repeat the rest of the explanation? We've been having this tug-of-war over software subscriptions for almost 15 years now. Call it "the cloud" or any of the other rebranding attempts from the past, but it's all had the same goal: making you pay more for the software you use.
What we should fear is no longer having any control at all over the software we use AND having to pay every month/day/hour/minute for the privilege of being able to use it.
BTW, did anyone who modded parent up happen to notice the URL and content of his shared homepage? He's hardly an impartial observer in this matter: he has a specific vested interest in promoting this "SaaS". SaaS very much a threat... to anyone not producing or selling it. The people promoting it aim to tip the economic balance even farther in their favor. Sure, supposedly we all have that goal in common, but some people are greedier than others. It's large corporations that will benefit from "SaaS", not the little guy.
Re:Flashing lights and the death of crap IT (Score:5, Informative)
The Cloud represents problems especially where some countries and or companies have strong data protection laws.
It doesn't actually. I can and do get my computation and storage (from Amazon as it happens) located in countries where such laws hold quite easily enough (I pay a small premium - about 10% last time I looked - but I don't mind) and I know that there are other companies that resell this (with the location guarantee) as higher-level services. Now, if your prospective provider won't offer you the same level of service, I suggest you don't use them. Maybe you should also tell them why you're not going to trade with them; it might encourage them to take your concerns seriously if they know why they're not getting your trade.