Moore’s Law back in 1965 predicted silicon power
would double every two years. But what its creator, Gordon E. Moore, couldn’t
have predicted was the dramatic economies of scale the cloud would
eventually bring to all of our lives. For one, it’s helped lead to a drop
in price for essentials like computing power and storage by making them more
accessible. But also, it’s enabled conveniences no one ever would have imagined
four or so decades ago.
Today
we’re able to use a mobile device with massive power and local storage to
locate and download from virtually anywhere in the world an application for as
little as 59 pence. Think for example of Shazam, which identifies songs you
can’t quite discern after it listens for just a few seconds. Leveraging its
cloud database, Shazam also lets you buy and download the song via your
smartphone. All of this – the convenience, the low cost, the power on the local
device – is driven by the cloud.
The
Cloud has not only driven down costs, but it’s helped increased our
satisfaction with – and expectations of – our Internet experience. It’s enabled
mobility and delivered immense computing power to anyone, anywhere at any time.
The cloud has also driven the success of many vendors and will continue to do
so as developers deliver applications that are faster to market and reach a
wider commercial audience at a lower cost of delivery.
We
should expect to see more changes
in the size and delivery methods of the technologies we use –where very small
files, programs or devices connect to the cloud where all of the benefits are
stored. Such client/cloud configurations are a boon for consumerisation as our
appetites for an always-connected, “iWant” lifestyle increase.
In
10 years on iPhone 14 and iPad 11, will we see applications that are free and
pay 1p per use perhaps? Or will we see others employing new models that yet
again change the way we digest and pay for computing power and information?
More
changes to the Cloud economics that we won’t see coming are inevitable. Perhaps
an update to Moore’s Law will be formed to hypothesize that the number of
applications running the in the cloud will double every two years; based on
today’s adoption and consumption rates, however, we’re more likely to see
this being every two months
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