Thoughts on....... possible future of personal computing

Hi,

A thought that has recently occupied my mind is what shape personal computing might take in the near future. In particular this involves the application of virtualization, specifically Cloud, to the type of computing that both you and I carryout every day, instead of those large and critical business processes that are currently so readily reported on. I am certain that there are many articles out there on the web about this very scenario, but here's my own angle on it for those who are interested.

As part of my role within the IT security field, I regularly need to connect to remote and/or virtualized customer systems. I won't go in the whole ethos of virtualization here as that's been done to death, however suffice to say that the occasions when I have need to connect to 'local' systems has been very rare indeed. In addition I am increasing making use of systems that are hosted within Elastic (Cloud based) server environments.
Taken as a whole these types of environments can provide their users with benefits such as:
• Fault tolerate
• Lower carbon footprint (specifically in relation to Elastic computing)
• Always available systems
• Automatic application of critical systems patches
• Automatic execution of virus, malware and intrusion detection scanning
• Ready to install software products
• Globally accessible
• Automatic execution of system backup procedures
When considered in the context of personal computing, very few (even those of us who are more technically aware) would be able to setup the same processes for our home computers. To put the above list into scenarios we would all recognize, consider the following:

• How many times has you personal computer locked up with no obvious reason, or failed to startup at all?
• Many many times have you left your personal computer plugged into the mains running and/or charging even though it wasn't being used? Or used it constantly as its highest power level?
• How regularly do you turn on your personal computer for one thing and then turn it off soon after? (for example check a train timetable, send an email, read a recipe, check the weather?
• Are critical system patches applied to your own personal computer, or those of your friends and family, as soon as they come out?
• Is your personal computer checked for new and existing viruses and malware (or even in real-time)?
• How often have you spent hours (or days in some circumstances) trying to get a particular software product installed onto your personal computer?
• How many times have you been away from your personal computer and had a need to access software or files on it?
• Do you backup the important files on your personal computer regularly? What about the personal computers your friends and family own?

This is not an exhaustive list of course, but I hope that it illustrates the fact that if personal computing was pulled into the new world of Cloud computing, specifically Platform-As-A-Service (PaaS), the IT-illiterate common man on the street would see massive benefits.

Playing devil’s advocate for a moment firstly let me say that of course what I'm suggesting here would not come for free. To take out all the services offered by a PaaS company who provides such as service would not come cheap (although you could take on tasks like virus scanning yourself to save money). On the flip side, consider that if there was no need for you to purchase a new powerful personal computer every 18 months (as described excellently on my Pirean colleague Ryan's blog) surely this would offset the cost of this service? Especially when you consider the personal (incalculable) time spent trying to coax your computer to do something it doesn't want to carry out.
Secondly I understand that just because a PC is virtualized, does not mean that all the common issues I describe here disappear. It does mean though that PaaS companies providing such as service would be able to use economies of scale and automated service management systems to help alleviate them.

Stepping away from the merits, lets now consider that my personal computer has been virtualized into the Cloud, and this is being backed up, virus scanned and managed for a monthly fee. How, you would wonder, do I connect to this and use it? Well I'm glad you asked. The only requirements at this point would be:

• A (very) fast internet connection, with no monthly data limits
• A thin interface that has excellent connectivity (peripherals, network) and screen resolution
• An application that allows me to connect to my virtualized personal computer

Returning to my own setup, the above three items describes what I currently have at home; a 20 MB/s ADSL line, my laptop (1GBps network card, many USB sockets, fairly good screen), and Putty/RDP/telnet etc. Devices such as Tablet PCs, iPads, smartphones and IP enabled home entertainment systems, if properly configured by their manufactures, would allow in my opinion users to do away with their desktop/laptop and embrace what could be a new and exciting landscape for personal computer.

Thanks for listening. Any thoughts and comments would be warmly welcomed.

One giant leap for ...... me I suppose

So my first blog and also blog entry. What to say? Something insightful on the world, life and mankind perhaps?
Err no, instead I'll try and restrict myself to three less-weighty areas to hopefully avoid rambling. These will be:

• What I actually understand and know about (probably most likely to be IT/tech related)
• What I find interesting
• What I wonder about during those spare moments in life, such as when you're waiting for the train to stop and its doors to open

At the very least I hope to use this blog to siphon off my thoughts so that I (1) don't forget some of the useful/interesting stuff I learn through my work, and (2) get some more sleep as I won't be sitting there wondering about something I've read online.

So that's the sum of it. Now, where to start...