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The market is progressively embracing the cloud computing paradigm, since it perceives pros to be greater than its cons. However, we should remember that technological superiority of a paradigm on its competitors is not an absolute. As this article suggests, cloud computing makes users particularly vulnerable to data loss.

A nice overview on how cloud computing works, and on how this could become the next paradigm for information technology. Don't read the main article only, but also the ones that are linked at the bottom. The review leans a lot on technology. I think it should be read by thinking about which market demands might favour or hinder the emergence of cloud computing.

Microsoft slowly starts building an online business model based on cloud computing, tackling Amazon and Google

An interesting comment on the up and coming "cloud computing" paradigm. Pros and cons of this technology are clear, but the way with which these are weighted by customers strongly depends on their age. Which broadly means that the younger generation has definitely embraced this paradigm, even when dealing with corporate and mission-critical applications.

A well-written paper on the battle for OS dominance when moving from a PC-based world to cloud computing (provided this transition really happens, of course). Some interesting examples from history are provided too.

Cloud computing is quickly becoming the dominant design for IT systems and could do the same to games consoles. This is quite striking, given that the trajectory followed by Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft has up to now been the opposite, with huge computing power distributed in users' living rooms, instead of concentrating it in providers' data centers

SAP, the dominant player in the corporate information systems industry, is apparently hitting a wall in face of radical innovation. First, the shift towards cloud computing seems to be very difficult to the company, although this slow transition could actually help its huge customer base move towards more modern systems without too many shock waves. Second, and probably more profound, SAP is finding it very difficult to change its internal routines and processes by embracing "agile" approaches to product development.

Radical innovation is coming into the world of servers too, with multi-core, enery-efficient machines. It is interesting to notice the strong complementarity between this innovation and the emergence of cloud computing.

Can David beat Goliath? Or, can Spotify successfully challenge Apple's iTunes? Yet another challenge coming from services built around the cloud computing paradigm against traditional client-server alternatives. 

What comes after client-server computing? Is is the cloud (dominated by Google?) or is it the network (dominated by Facebook)? These two companies' battle is no longer with Microsoft (who wisely has taken a stake in the latter) but among themselves. Despite its innovativeness and clout, Google hasn't been able to replicate Facebook's success. Now it is using acquisitions to strenghten its position. 

Large corporations such as Microsoft and Amazon are making huge investment in data centers for cloud computing all over the world. These are mostly sunk costs, which make it very likely that while capacity will overshoot, competition will drive prices down to marginal cost. A good prospect for the paradigm to become dominant... maybe less so for the companies involved (at least at first).

Google is pushing on its cloud-based strategy, with multiple sources of content - be it books, TV, or else - being delivered to multiple devices from its own data centers. It is likely to find weak resistance from stalwarts of past technology, but some fierce competition from the likes of Facebook.

The cloud computing paradigm is getting closer. Now Google is launching Chrome as an OS. While there appears to be widespread acceptance of the paradigm, we should not forget that Microsoft is strongly entrenched as a standard. The Chrome browser still has 2% market share!

The rise of the new IT paradigm (i.e. netbooks and "cloud computing") allows reshuffling in the dominance of the operating systems standard. Could Google's Chrome be the next Windows?

The race is on... Android's market share is overtaking iPhone's. If things go on this way it would be a deja vu of what happened with Windows and Macs, with "open" systems winning over "closed" (or semi-closed this time) ones. Even more, it would be a clear win of the cloud-based computing paradigm over the device-based one.

E' pacifico che alcune scelte di Microsoft non siano risultate brillanti, ma alcuni asseriscono che la società possa stare tranquilla in vista del contrasto Apple v.s Google, i quali ancora non hanno le sue stesse quote di mercato. Tuttavia, come sappiamo, la situazione è destinata a cambiare, perciò nel leggere questo articolo ci si chiede se la scommessa di Bill Gates, vuoi tradizionalista, vuoi vincente finora nell'espandere la propria tela fra i consumatori medi (che poi siamo quasi tutti), possa spuntarla sul lunghissimo periodo. Microsoft è nota per aver trasformato le difficoltà dell'informatica in un pacchetto appetibile e pronto all'uso. Ma se pensiamo alla co-creation, alla specializzazione sempre più acuta delle persone, quanto vale davvero ostinarsi nello standard, nelle piattaforme, quando accanto a te c'è chi, con il cloud computing e l'open source, propone leggerezza di terminali, indipendenza dalla piattaforma, mobilità? Per ora tra i due litiganti Microsoft sta più o meno bene, ma l'innovazione ci insegna ad adeguarci, come lo stesso ingegnere IBM notava al seminario.

Yesterday in Cupertino, CA, the Apple's CEO unveiled at the developers the new iPhone OS 4.0. The new OS is available to iPhone developers today, while the general public will get the update sometime this summer. Apple uses innovators and then early adopters to improve the product, leveraging on their enthusiasm. "We are not the first to offer this service, but we are the best" : Steve Jobs doesn't know moderation and understatement. Some of the OS 4.0 features, as the multitasking, doesn't represents that kind of radical innovation, just because Google did it first. But Apple is aware about giving those features to its product in the right time, according to Jobs. By the way, multitasking is only 1 of the 100 new user features announced and thanks to the early market the OS 4.0 could potentially represent the birth of new paradigms in the operating software market.

Advertising agencies and software developers also welcomed Apple's new iAd network as a potential breakthrough that could give an important boost to the small but fast-growing mobile advertising market. iAd is an OS 4.0 built-in app, which could be the starting point of a new generation of mobile adverts that would be far more engaging than current formats, which Jobs said "suck". Thanks to his company's control Apple's network would be able to serve up more creative forms of advertising to run inside the "apps" users download on to these devices. Advertising inside apps, although still small, has become the hottest corner of the mobile advertising business, prompting a race between Google and Apple. In fact, earlier this year Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $270 million signaling its intention to enter the advertising network space. Quattro is an ad network that spans both mobile websites and smartphone applications. It seems to develop a new strategy and paradigm for the advertisement and a new battle field for the two giants Apple and Google. Which will emerge?