What the iPhone teaches us about cloud adoption

Chris Hoff (now a colleague at Cisco, but long a phenomenal blogger in his own right) described in a recent post a fascinating analogy for the inevitable adoption of cloud computing--the adoption of the Apple iPhone:

While I have often grouped Cloud Computing with the consumerization of IT (and the iPhone as it's most visible example) together in concert in my disruptive innovation presentations, I never really thought of them as metaphors for one another.

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

When you think of it, it's really a perfect visual.

The iPhone is a fantastic platform that transforms using technology that has been around for quite a while into a more useful experience. The iPhone converges many technologies and capabilities under a single umbrella and changes the way in which people interact with their data and other people.

Hoff goes on to note several specific parallels: our willingness to be locked in to specific providers to gain the iPhone's benefits; our admiration of those who work to innovate beyond proprietary boundaries through jailbreaks and "unapproved" application marketplaces; the desperate scramble by a variety of vendors to attach their star to the iPhone brand; and the constant rate at which features appear and evolve.

In the end, Hoff notes:

The thing I love about my iPhone is that it's not a piece of technology I think about but rather, it's the way interact with it to get what I want done. It has its quirks, but it works...for millions of people.

The point here is that Cloud is very much like the iPhone. As Sir James (Urquhart) says "Cloud isn't a technology, it's an operational model." Just like the iPhone.

Hoff is referring to my earlier post pointing out that the cloud isn't about new classes of technologies, but about technologies written to support the cloud model of self-service, on-demand, at scale operations. Corny nicknames not withstanding, Hoff also picked up on two fascinating things in his riff:

• The iPhone isn't a technology--at least, not a new category of technology--but rather a platform that delivers a new operations model for mobile device consumers. iTunes and the iPhone App Store are services that simplify iPhone diversification to the point that it meets the needs of an incredible variety of users; from the biggest geeks to the technology illiterate. (OK, so I wouldn't be surprised if the former dominated the latter.)

• Cloud computing will evolve much in the same way that the iPhone itself has evolved; early versions of the technology itself now lacks key features, but the operations model is what is compelling, and it keeps early adopters coming back for more.

You have to wonder if Hoff shouldn't have included the Google Android in his analogy, as Steve Oberlin suggested on Twitter. There are choices in the cloud space--it's not dominated by any one vendor, though Amazon may be the Apple of the cloud today.

I'm generally sold. I wonder what you think. Will cloud computing see massive adoption as more and more people (and companies) are seen benefiting from related services, and more and more compelling applications and services are available from the cloud? Or are both just trendy subjects that will eventually give way to more traditional technologies and getting things done?

[dadsgravy]

I'm old and I don't like it.

[AeroJonesy]

Could computing is a "trendy" subject in that it's nothing new.

[ikramerica--2008]

The Android didn't revolutionize anything or change the way people do things. While it may be better in some respects, it is me too.

As for the iPhone appealing mostly to tech geeks, I don't agree. Unless you are truly geeky and want to unlock it, then geeks are often turned off by the closed environment, the same way many geeks are closed off by the Mac and the limited customization of it.

The two group attracted most to the iPhone are the ease of use crowd, and the crowd that effectively and effortlessly adapt technology to their lifestyles and professions. Okay, maybe a third group is the iPod lover who wants that exact functionality (not a copy) in their phone. But it's the second group that drives sales of technology in general, as they are the ones that upgrade computers and electronics more often. They are willing to try new things even if they don't know 100% how they work. They just want them to work, to make their lives easier, more productive, and/or more fun, and the iPhone meets those requirements for many people.

[DBdweeb]

The Android is "revolutionary" in that it provides open choice where you're not locked in to a provider with the bribe of a discount phone. Like it would be terrible if I bought a television from CBS and was locked in to watching only their content. With choice comes competition. This is accomplished by separating the service and the content from the device. Won't it be great if the network providers really, REALLY have to compete on bandwidth and availability?

Likewise the Android OS is providing choice on lots of devices from notebooks to automobile instrumentation and home automation systems. The "internetization" of every last gizmo is quite revolutionary.

[cvaldes1831]

The term "cloud computing" will sooner or later lose the "cloud" part. The general public will eventually decides that it really doesn't matter if their data lives locally, on their local network, or out on the Internet. Heck, youngsters (the Facebook set) probably don't care right now. Basically "cloud computing" is a term used by old fogeys like us.

When I bought my iPod touch about eighteen months ago, it was just a pricey music player with e-mail and a web browser. The App Store changed the game and since last summer, my MacBook has left the house just twice.

The world is going to run their lives around these handheld devices (they already do in some countries like Japan). Traditional computing will end up being relegated to specific tasks, mostly business-oriented and resource-heavy projects like HD video editing.

[AeroJonesy]

I think the general public stopped caring where their data was stored back in the AOL days.

[cvaldes1831]

@AeroJonesy:

Yeah, you're probably right.

The more I think about it, the more "cloud computing" is really just a term for IT managers, technology pundits and journalists. The rest of the world just doesn't care. Heck, when kids say that they "e-mailed" a friend, a lot of times they really mean "sent a message on Facebook".

[AeroJonesy]

@cvaldes1831,

Not even IT managers, if you ask me. Companies have been off-shoring IT for years, which really isn't much different than "cloud computing" as it is thought of today.

[cvaldes1831]

Again, you are right.

Our IT folks have been outsourcing some IT services for several years, long before "cloud computing" became a buzzword bingo square. To their credit, they still don't call it cloud computing.

[cvaldes1831]

Okay, I just found the following comment posted elsewhere. Here's how one ER doc is "getting things done".

kathycorby wrote:

"I?m an ER doctor. This morning, a 10 year old with a rare metabolic disease was brought in ?seizing and not breathing. Perhaps her mother was surprised to see me reach first into my white coat pocket for my iphone.
First, I needed a quick dip into Calculator to convert pounds into kilos. Next to Skyscape mobile 5 Minute Emergency Consult to double check drug sequences. The RSI (Rapid Sequence Induction) gave me precalculated drug doses for emergency intubation?all five of them that I needed, and all at once. Waiting for the nurses to pull the drugs, I dove into Eponyms for a quick overview of the rare condition?Refsum?s syndrome. Bingo. Off to Wikipedia for a few additional details. Epocrates ran my drug/drug interaction check. The ABG app helped me interpret her complex blood gas result. Without leaving the bedside, I could contact her specialist, could check weather conditions at the tertiary care referral center where the helicopter would need to land, could show the parents the path of the breathing tube in the Netter anatomy app.
Think the app store doesn?t matter? Don?t bet your life on it. Chances are your doctor doesn?t agree."

http://news.cnet.com/8618-17938_105-10274278.html?communityId=2007&targetCommunityId=2007&blogId=1&messageId=8112341

[AMCMD]

Fabulous story. Real. Timely and probably quite cost sensitive/life saving! Nothing like visuals to COMMUNICATE with the increasingly savvy and net informed public. the faster 3G iPhone will probably make this interaction even faster while the complexity of the medical interaction is simply transparent to the onlookers....I've been trying to get my ICU RN wife to take her iphone to work instead of the book tonnage of publications she keeps in her locker for reference. Do you have any suggestions to help me help her reach your level of iPhone sophistication?

[cvaldes1831]

Jesus, I suggest you make her just read this testimony.

I don't work in the healthcare industry. I just identified Kathy Corby's post as a real-world example of people taking advantage of what's available to users of handheld devices. Maybe this stuff is available on Blackberrys and Palm Pres. She points out that she's doing this all on the iPhone.

Since the App Store went online, I found that I've taken my MacBook out of the house just twice. These little devices (iPhone/iPod touch and perhaps some of their competitors) are amazing. The game has changed, the world is different.

[timmyj75]

Great story up until the doctor goes to Wikipedia for medical advice. Maybe it's just me but I'd prefer a wiki that is limited to medical professionals that doesn't run the risk that untrained individuals are posting to the site. But kudos for using the technology in very effective ways! Great to hear stories like this.

[Cheese McBeese]

Cloud-based ecosystems are facing inevitable growth, especially for recreational computing. Why? Because they're efficient and cost effective. Cloud-centric computing will prevail, just as water finds its way down hill.

Mainframes are a closed version of a cloud ecosystem, so anyone who suggests the concept of the Cloud is new must have slept through history class. What caused the migration from mainframes to personal computing? Moore's Law having its way with processor and storage costs. What is now driving the migration back towards a hosted cloud model? Moore's Law having its way with bandwidth.

The pendulum swings back and forth as technology drives new kinds of efficiencies. Right now, we're seeing computing migrate into the cloud. The 'cloud' is made up of commercial hosted computing solutions from the likes of Amazon et al. Next, I believe we'll see the cloud become virtual and migrate into a distributed P2P model.

We'll see.

Cheeseburger anyone?

[ikramerica--2008]

It's funny. When I was a freshman in college many years ago, I argued that cloud computing (in that day, referred to as centralized, which sounds more commie than Cloud...) will eventually take over. Though at that time, I had a different reason, and that was storage and processing power. The arguments against were speed of connection and access to data, as well as speed of graphical display of that information (many of us used Macs and they couldn't see how you could have a remote GUI). But at this time, Apple had just released their first laptop, so nobody really thought that portable computers or handhelds would be permanently connected anyway.

At that time, in advanced statistics or engineering classes, you remotely logged into a Sun workstation and ran your data, but by the time I was a senior, the computers we had in our dorms were fast enough to run those numbers, so the idea of centralized processing seemed to be dead.

Now though, it's back in full force. Every time you do a search for information, it's centralized processing, and then a preconfigured page is sent to you. You only store (cache) that immediate information, and keep it for a while until it gets old and better info replaces it. And we are now getting versions of Office and other apps running centrally again, just as I predicted. We have VNC and other remote access GUI software. And the "browsers" are highly optimized remote rendering engines, but they work with your local hardware to complete the task.

So ultimately, there will never be the "dumb terminal" as we knew it, but our high powered handhelds and computers already act as dumb+local storage terminals, and use their processing power to present us with the eye candy for the ease of use.

[brettsutherlin]

Very interesting article. Brett Sutherlin

[AMCMD]

I was sad to hear of Mr. Mays' sudden death, but the story is very compelling: A sudden jerky stop when a airplane tire blows on landing, strong enough to open overhead compartments with contents landing on his head and 'not feeling well' on the way home, and dying in 'his sleep' are all consistent with an expanding subdural hematoma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdural_hematoma) - Remember Natasha Richardson? (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/18/entertainment/main4875136.shtml)

I don't think this will be another Michael Jackson autopsy story having to wait 6 wks for the result. Give it 12 hrs!

AMC

[AMCMD]

I posted this on the wrong site. Sorry.
My question was simple. Can cloud computing/iphone content controls be applied to healthcare>?

[cvaldes1831]

It probably depends on the attending physician. In Billy Mays' death, there was no attending physician. The guy took a bonk on the head and went home.

If you read my reply above, I've pointed out one very specific example of how one physician uses her iPhone.

These are just tools. The iPhone (or any other handheld device) in the hands of an idiot isn't going to create a revolution. There's a difference between information (good and bad), knowledge (good information), and wisdom (knowledge + experience).

Most technology journalists do not understand this basic fact (I am not claiming that Mr. Urquhart is amongst their number). They think more information is good and they are dead wrong.

The iPhone provides the user a flood of information. How that's used is based on the intelligence of the user. Wisdom on the Internet? That's a rarity, maybe worth paying for.

[mathteacher909]

To me, there seems to be no substantial reason why some personal/sensitive data could not be stored locally and other data stored online. If, and when, I have a situation where 100% internet availability is cost effective - right now, I have WiFi access at home, at work, and at other hotspots and so I am unwilling to pay for a data service through my cell phone carrier - then I might be willing to dump ALL my data into online storage as long as I was assured that it would never go away unless I deleted it.

But ultimately it will be a cost effectiveness issue for me: how much will it cost to store my data online versus locally, and how much for 100% internet access to my online data?

[ghaffari197]

I recently bought the palm pre and i feel that this phone, without experience with android, provides perfect example of cloud usage. i have never had to plug in or synch my phone but my contacts, calender and face book info is realtime spread throughout my office, office computer and home without a cord to synch daily

[Renegade Knight]

It's just another business model. The goal to sell subscriptions to services that "old" software could do forever for one fee. I use 1 cloud app. I hate doing so as I'll have to drop when the fee's start. Alas no software right now does the job as simply or well. Though if the can programm it for the cloud they could do it in an app.