Letting Go or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cloud
RYAN - Speaking from an overwhelmingly American perspective (we are, after all, an American company), possession tends to be everything. Since free men from around the world began heading West and grabbing whatever land they could find out past the Cumberland Gap, there has been this obsession in American culture with the things we own and the private ways in which we use them. The same is true for our digital trappings. Many of us pride ourselves on our external hard drives filled to the brim with ill-gotten music and video. We rely on our meticulously crafted filing systems to help us keep track of electronic property. It has classically been important to buy the most storage room, to download the most junk, to boast the most complete collections.
But all that is very quickly changing. With Apple’s recent introduction of iCloud in the keynote address of WWDC ‘11, a once obscure concept is racing to the front of everybody’s mind. Some have been moving toward the Cloud for months, even years, sometimes without even realizing it. Others are still not sure what it means to them. Regardless of your place on this continuum, over the coming weeks, months and years, it will be imperative that we all begin to familiarize ourselves with the most alien of concepts: giving everything away. At liloQui Digital Publishing, we are in many ways already living in a world where someone else stores our most precious files for us. We’re frankly excited about the many opportunities and possibilities that the cloud brings with it, and we think it’s time you got on board.
What is the Cloud?
Perhaps its best to start our look at the Cloud by taking a step back and making sure everybody is on the same page. It’s safe to assume that there is no shortage of individuals who may have just heard about the Cloud for the first time in the past few days, or still have no idea to what everybody is making reference.
The best way to quickly familiarize yourself with the Cloud is by checking out Google’s recent HTML5 book, 20 Things I Learned About Browsers & the Web. For those of us who don’t have time for such silly nonsense, here’s the quick rundown:
The Cloud is made up of every website, every file, every shared piece of information that exists on the Internet. When you head to YouTube to watch a video that isn’t stored on your personal drive, you’re accessing the Cloud. When you share a photo on Facebook, you’re adding to the Cloud. The recent push toward Cloud computing is all about removing our dependence on the terribly vulnerable drives we carry around in our laptops, tablets and phones and learning to rely instead on that great nebula of information that is stored on secure mainframes and in massive data centers around the world. Today, many people make use of a number of Cloud-based services that provide backups to their personal files. So when your computer overheats and catches fire in a blaze of fury and horrible dread, you only need to worry about replacing the device itself and not the irreplaceable files it housed.
As tech companies push forward into the future, these services continue to be refined and expanded. As Internet connections increasingly default to the kind of “always on” reliability we come to expect from broadband and certain mobile providers, barriers between us and our Cloud-stored files will grow fewer and fewer, and the need for large and expensive storage drives will diminish. This is the story of the Cloud, and it’s a very simple story.
Media on the Cloud
The entertainment industry in its various forms has been a huge frontrunner when it comes to using the Cloud to find cool new ways of accessing the media we love. If you’ve ever once in the past year or so decided against making a DVD purchase simply because you know that you can view the movie or show in question anytime on Netflix instant streaming, you’ve already been convinced that the Cloud rocks. In this scenario, you have learned that you don’t necessarily need your own copy of a piece of media, that you can trust Netflix to be available whenever you may need it and to make available whatever media you may need.
This is a logical first step for the average person’s migration to the Cloud. At the end of the day, movies and television shows are not an absolute necessity, even if we sometimes think they are. If I’m relying on Netflix for access to the shows and movies I love, for example, the worst thing that can ever happen to me is that Netflix is unreachable somehow and I am disappointed that I can’t watch something. There aren’t jobs on the line in this scenario. I don’t have to worry that a big presentation for my shareholders won’t be available somehow, or even that my precious family vacation photos might not be there when I need them. The Netflix step is a safe, comfortable one, and it’s going to set the tone for everything else we watch, read, listen to and enjoy.
For example, it’s because people have become comfortable in this way that liloQui is confident that we can serve literature best by moving it to the Cloud. With today’s eBook standards, we have to rely on standardized and specialized devices (Nook, Kindle, etc.) and software (Kindle for Android, iBooks, etc.). Books take up (an albeit small) amount of space on whatever devices we use. The books we publish have to be compatible, bearing certain file extensions and facing the limitations those extensions carry. By relying instead on the Cloud, we can publish all sorts of exciting, unique and interactive books using web-based reading applications, sidestepping those restrictions altogether. That way, just like with Netflix or Rhapsody or any other Cloud-based media solution, readers can access the literature they want, when they want, on the device they want, and it’s going to look and feel amazing.
Making the Cloud Work
You don’t have to wait along for the future to show up in order to start using the Cloud. In previous posts, we’ve talked a lot about different Cloud services. Here are some of our favorites:
When you sign up for a DropBox account, you’re given a free 2 GB of storage space for whatever you might want to move to the Cloud. There are ways of earning more free space (inviting friends, installing apps) and you can even rent out larger chunks for outsourcing even more of your storage needs. We are absolutely in love with the folder sharing feature, with which DropBox allows users to share entire folders with each other. This works great for work or school projects (liloQui lives in a DropBox shared folder) or for sharing important documents, photos or videos between family members. You can integrate your DropBox folder right into your operating system, viewing it like any other external drive, and using DropBox’s website, you can view archived versions of each of your files, allowing you to track progress and recover old work.
If DropBox and Microsoft Office had a baby, it would be called Google Docs. This online suite of storage and productivity tools allows users to store any of their files on the Cloud and, as with DropBox, share them with anyone. But it doesn’t stop there. Certain types of documents (text files, spreadsheets, et al.) can even be produced and edited right inside the browser. Multiple users can edit documents simultaneously, viewing each other’s work in real time. If you don’t use Google Docs, you should.
It’s a stretch to call this one a favorite; it’s been mired by a number of poor usability reviews since its recent debut. That said, the Amazon Cloud Player represents an exciting trend toward outsourced media storage. Using this service, anyone can purchase music online, store it in a dedicated Cloud account and also play it from the web. Android users can also download an app to use the service natively on their devices.
As we previously mentioned, Apple will soon be completely revamping their MobileMe service, switching to a new product brand with the new tech built right into its name. iCloud isn’t available yet (look for it with iOS 5 in the fall), but it will bring with it Apple’s signature integration know-how, blending the services of DropBox, Google Docs, Amazon Cloud Player and more into one universal system for Apple users. It’s nothing inherently groundbreaking, but it is remarkable in the way it takes what’s best from other Cloud services and makes everything run together smoothly. Apple users will be given 5 GB of free storage space and will be able to effortlessly sync their Cloud real estate with any and all of their Apple devices. Additionally, iTunes will work closely with iCloud, making backup copies of all purchased music, backups that won’t count against a user’s 5 GB free limit.
Into the Cloud!
For those of us who have been afraid of the Cloud, it’s looking like it’s about time to let go. All around, there are inspiring examples of Cloud computing that offer us candid views into the future of web technology and information systems. Some of our fears may be very real; it’s certainly difficult to give up immediate possession of those things we hold dear. But as more and more services help us to take baby steps into the Cloud, showing us the exciting possibilities for interaction between us and our media, we might just realize that letting go isn’t just easy; it’s natural. As we move forward with this burgeoning new movement, we will see our devices shrink and simplify, we’ll see storage costs change and evolve, we’ll rest easy at night knowing that our digital lives will continue beyond the deaths of our own computers and we will learn to stop worrying and love the Cloud.
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