Apples' foray into the Cloud

By Marc

How will Apple Inc foray into the cloud work out?

This was an interesting question, especially with all the cover being given to the world of cloud computing. I started to look at what offerings Apple would try to offer and was incredibly surprised with what I discovered.

The surprise come mainly from the fact that Apple was in fact the first to offer cloud in a form slightly different to what we know today, as as of very recently has built the largest cloud storage facility in the world!, and has started on more.

You see it was like this; Apple Inc. Originally launched on January 5, 2000, iTools, a free collection of Internet-based services for users of Mac OS 9, Apple relaunched this service as .Mac on July 17, 2002, when it became a paid subscription service primarily designed for users of Mac OS X. Apple relaunched the service again as MobileMe at WWDC 2008 on July 9, 2008, now targeting Mac OS X, Windows, iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch users.

All this becomes redundant with the Launch of iCloud. Apple's iCloud will combine their current MobileMe services and add some newer ones, one I particularly like is PhotoStream you take a photo on your iPhone, and automatically its uploaded to iCloud and then if set loaded to each and every device you own. Personally this means holiday snaps are now on my desktop before I get home. In business I could see this being very handy service that requires very little training. Say a sale rep finds a problem with a part, he snaps it with his iPhone, a moment later its on the work server, and the engineers could get hold of it with out any hassle, Insurance adjusters, Search and rescue staff could sign in and use this feature.

Along with storage and documents that work from cloud it offers what seems the norm is being offered. iPhone users will love find my iPhone and find my Mac feature that will also tie into the cloud. Apple has long had a backup archive component as well as contacts and calendars. iPhone iPad or iPod users will no longer need to connect their devices to their computers to access these or changes, as long as they have access to wireless they can now update or restore their devices.

With all this wireless usage Im very glad my telco recently shifted me to 3.5gb per month allowance, and even then I smile whenever I see a McDonalds as they all have free wireles.

So having a good amount of regularly accessed data this handy make way for the netbooks, and iPads to become serious business and personal tools, very serious! Most of the insurance adjusters in Christchurch at the moment are being equipped with iPads, as their ease of use and cameras make them effective tools, and once iCloud come online they will indeed become major tools for this recovery process.

So in short I think Apples foray into Cloud will be memorable and very well put together, again :)