This post highlights six reasons why the average person is beginning to embrace cloud services, with a particular emphasis on the Caribbean and on developing countries.
(Source: karindalziel, flickr)
Over the last several months, much of the discussion on cloud computing in the tech industry has been focussed on its use by corporate entities. In that time and among the general public, there has been a growing awareness of cloud services and the opportunities and benefits that it may afford the average consumer. Although take-up of cloud services might vary considerably worldwide, there are some key factors driving this growth. Six are outlined in this post, but please feel free to share others in the Comment box below.
1. Faster and cheaper broadband. In the Caribbean, as discussed in our May 2011 snapshot of Internet speeds in the region, and our first examination of cloud trends, depending on the country, broadband speeds in the Caribbean might not be particularly fast or reliable. However, it is improving. Through the improved speed and reliability of Internet broadband, along with falling rates, especially in the developing countries, people are not only able to maintain reasonable connectivity to the Internet, more of them are also able to afford the service. Hence with better broadband access, cloud services are increasingly becoming a more viable option for the average consumer.
2. Cost effectiveness. Traditionally, if you wanted to use a particular software application or hardware resource, you would have to purchase it, and budget for their maintenance and upgrade costs. However, in these austere times, where the public at large, not just businesses, have to be mindful about their own personal budgets and expenditure, cloud services are providing an attractive option for using a broad range of computing resources, whilst managing the associated expense. Many of their schemes are designed to bill either on a usage basis, or through a variety of plans/packages that reflect the user’s needs.
Additionally, especially with regards to cloud storage, many providers offer a basic plan, usually 1—2 GB, for free, which could lure those who might not necessarily pursue such an option in the first place, but thereafter would be eager to continue to use and even to purchase additional capacity.
3. Convenience. A key characteristic of cloud services is that they can be accessed and used at any time and from any device. This feature makes clouds highly convenient, since critical information or resources may be accessed as and when needed. Clouds also provide a common (or single) location to store data, instead of having duplicate or even different versions of the same information stored across a number of devices, which is not just more convenient, but also efficient. Further, the ability to access and share information wherever you are – even on the go – is becoming increasingly important with our growing dependence on mobile devices and social networking.
4. Other positive cloud experiences. Although people might not immediately realise it, their webmail accounts, such as their Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo email accounts, are cloud services. For many, these accounts are their primary email contact, which they access via a web browser only. This means that a considerable number of people already have had some experience using cloud services. Further, since most of them (most likely) have had positive experiences with their webmail accounts, this can reduce the sense of intimidation that might normally be present when using other cloud services for the first time.
5. Clouds are seen as cutting edge yet mainstream. Thanks to Google, many people have been exposed to an increasing range of cloud services. Starting with its email service, Gmail, Google eventually allowed its customers to store and manipulate photos online (Picassa), and even to prepare and store various types of documents (Google Docs) online. Although those and other offerings have been around for a few years, the recent release of the new Window and Apple Operating System (OS), in particular, has broaden the appeal of cloud services. For example, the new Mac OS X Lion is a common platform that works on Mac computers, iPads, iPods and iPhones, which also allows Apple’s new iCloud facility to automatically synchronise and update content across all connected devices. Hence, in addition to being practical, vendors are taking the guesswork and effort out of managing content stored online and are making cloud access a highly useful value add in their current offerings.
6. The continuing need for backups/secondary storage. Finally, although USB and/or external hard drives are popular forms of secondary storage for the average person, those devices can fail at the most inopportune time. For added protection (redundancy), people are embracing cloud storage and services, to provide another back up alternative. Furthermore, recognising the susceptibility of many parts of the world, especially the Caribbean, to natural and manmade disasters, clouds allow us to secure critical information, e.g. important work and personal documents, but still allow us ready access to them at a moment’s notice.
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