Interview with John McEleney, CEO of CloudSwitch
With all of the talk about clouds recently, and the interesting coincidence that John McEleney, the former CEO of SolidWorks, is now the CEO of CloudSwitch, I thought now might be a good time to talk to John. I don’t have any special access to Mr. McEleney, but we were acquainted before he became SW’s CEO. I went to dinner with him once in his role as a sales VP (if my memory serves correctly) at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY back in the late 90′s. The Anchor Bar is the birth place of Buffalo wings. John also got his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Rochester, and I worked at SolidWorks resellers around Rochester for several years.
Here is a summary of what CloudSwitch does, right from the CloudSwitch website:
CloudSwitch enables enterprises to move their existing applications to the right cloud computing environment—securely, simply and without changes. With CloudSwitch, applications remain tightly integrated with enterprise data center tools and policies, and can be moved easily between different cloud environments and back into the data center based on the requirements of the business. CloudSwitch protects enterprises from the complexity, risks and potential lock-in of cloud computing, freeing them to leverage the cloud’s advantages in cost and business agility.
If you are following this cloud business closely, you will want to watch this YouTube video to get a better sense of what CloudSwitch is, and how it could potentially play into SolidWorks or even your own company’s plans to move applications to the cloud.
This picture shows John McEleney at a table full of users at SWW 2007 Super Bowl party signing a copy of SolidWorks 1995 that Richard Hall had with him. The other users shown are (left to right) Devon Sowell, Rob Rodriguez, Richard Hall and Ricky Jordan. John was the type of SW CEO that users could relate to. He had a mechanical engineering degree and a manufacturing engineering degree, in addition to the obligatory MBA. He can obviously think at a higher level, but also knows the difference between counterbore and countersink. This is why he can relate to users in a way that other SW CEOs might not.
The CloudSwitch product is aimed at enterprises that make use of data centers. This is not necessarily a one-to-one relationship with what Solidworks is hoping to do, but Mr. McEleney has a lot of insight into the how and why of cloud computing in general, some of which can give us a glimpse into what we can expect to experience with SW in the cloud. His company doesn’t really deal with software end users, they deal with the corporate entity implementing the cloud software, and moving (switching) from a local cloud which may be on all the time, but only needed on a part time basis, to a much larger and much more flexible hosted cloud with the ability to turn it on or off as needed.
Anyway, I caught John with some open time, and he was just a firehose of information for about 45 minutes. I took 3 pages of notes, but should have had 3 times that easily. What follows is a bit of a paraphrase of some things he had to say about himself personally, the SolidWorks community, and about this business of cloud.
John started with a bit of an explanation of why he left SolidWorks in the first place. Jon Hirschtick served as CEO for about 6 years before McEleney took over for the next 6 years between 2001 and 2007. Then he had some personal issues to take care of, and decided to step down. In short order he had a wedding, the birth of a child and the death of first his father then his mother, all of which made this period quite demanding for him.
After some time, as you might expect from any ambitious and motivated person, John started feeling a little restless, eager to get back into the fray of business life. He began talking to investors in the Boston area, and started noticing some things about some of the business proposals that passed his desk. His experience at SolidWorks taught him some things about what computer users wanted: faster computers and better graphics. But these things weren’t really core to the customer’s business, they were secondary at best. He recognized the need for what he calls a platform shift. The emergence of the internet itself is a platform shift, like moving CAD from mainframes to Unix to Windows. Moving applications to the cloud is the latest platform shift.
John also noticed that “every” company that was using cloud type applications was using Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) rather than building their own server structure. This was because of the flexibility of Amazon’s cloud to match the compute need with the business need.
Of course I had to ask if there was any sort of connection between him joining a cloud company, and SolidWorks announcing that they had been working on cloud applications for 3 years, and he said, quote, “Absolute coincidence”. I’ll take him at his word for that. Cloud is an emerging market force, and it makes sense that SolidWorks is looking at it, and it also makes sense that there are startups in that discipline that need leaders. In fact, John rather echoed the claims of Jeff Ray and Bernard Charles that SolidWorks has a “fiduciary and strategic obligation” to be looking into this platform shift. The fact that this is a platform shift will “only be obvious to the masses in hindsight”. How long will this shift take? John recognizes that you may never get everybody off of the old way of doing things, but most people will switch over the course of several years, with the usual curve (as with first board to CAD and then 2D to 3D) bringing early adopters first, followed by increasingly conservative businesses and individuals. John says “There are no homogeneous solutions anywhere”, by which he means that cloud will coexist with other application delivery methods for a long time if not indefinitely.
When I asked John for an example of a customer that can benefit from using a hosted cloud such as the EC2, he cited one unnamed company that uses Siebel as their CRM (customer/contact resource management) system. When they want to test and roll out a new version of the system, they have to have a parallel install, and thus a second large bank of servers to handle the testing. It is so much easier to use a scalable hosted solution to do this rather than setting up a local server farm to do the testing.
McEleney gave a great analogy that helped put cloud computing in perspective. John’s wife is from Buffalo, NY, and she might want to go and visit sometime. She might want to stay a couple of days, or maybe longer, who knows. When she gets there, she needs to have a car. She could fly to Buffalo, buy and insure a car, then sell it when she leaves, but that’s wasteful and inconvenient if shes just there a couple of days. She might take a taxi, but that might also turn out to be too expensive if she wants to go to Niagara Falls, or to Canada, or to the Finger Lakes wine country. Or what if she wants to go somewhere and take the whole family of about 15 people? Other options include leasing and rental, and between the four options, buy, lease, rent, taxi, different scenarios might call for different solutions, possibly even hybrid solutions. That’s where the great value of the cloud starts to shine. It gives you immediate and more cost effective ways to quickly scale up or down without a huge investment or waste.
He gave another example of a company called Animoto, that takes music files and image files from Facebook, and makes a quick video from them. They started with a couple of servers in the closet of an apartment, but that was prone to all sorts of local problems, like cat hair in the fan and his girlfriend hitting the wrong light switch. After moving to the Amazon server farm, they went from say 2o hits an hour to a million hits a day over a very short time frame. There was no way they could have physically set up the necessary 3500 servers that fast, or had the room for them in their apartment. Being able to move into the cloud allowed for the business to grow explosively.
Cost for servers like this is charged on the order of 10cents per server hour. So If you have a complex computation that takes 10 servers 1 hour, that would cost $1. Figures are meant to be approximate, not exact. And there is no guarantee that SolidWorks will bill things like that either. John suggested that some of his beta customers envisioned payments like minutes on a cellular plan, to allow them to budget. I believe SolidWorks is still investigating the whole cost issue. How much to charge, and what sort of granularity to offer for billing or payment plans.
John did have a few other comments to add. He said a couple of times “the cloud is real”, I suppose to emphasize that it is not a passing fad or a plot to extort more money from customers. He was careful to add, however that he thought it was overhyped, but it was still real. He recognizes that there are a lot of real and legitimate questions that people have, some of which have good technical answers, and some don’t. He compared the early cloud to early product design, where CAD vendors created some inadvertent consequences. For example, large data sets and disparate locations required PDM applications, which became a market unto itself, and growing now into PLM. PDM wasn’t an intentional plot to make more money, it was a solution to some problems created by CAD.
He recognized that some smaller vendors might not need a cloud solution now, and that possibly a hybrid solution can allow interaction between cloud and non-cloud applications. He cited a triangle that shows the cloud implementation as a combination of Software as a Service, Platform as a Service, and Infrastructure as a Service :
He used the term “machiavellian” several times, by which I assume he meant that some naysayers propose that the cloud is really an underhanded scheme just to make more money, and that business people are forcing it where there seems to be no technical reason. John believes this application of technology solves many actual end user problems, although he acknowledges it does create others.
My overall take on John’s comments are that he strongly believes in the cloud (how could you not as a CEO of a cloud company), and that while his business is focussed on businesses offering cloud applications rather than end users, he sees gains in efficiency and stability through the cloud. He acknowledges that there are no homogeneous systems anywhere, and due to late adopters, naysayers and some possibly incompatible scenarios (such as military), some sort of a hybrid state may need to exist. Where this all settles out, time will tell some years into the future.
In parting, John wanted me to communicate to the SolidWorks community that he still loves the industry and the people, and wished to encourage us to keep challenging ourselves, our tools, and the people who make the tools. He also related a fun story. His 11 year old son said that he had two dreams. One of them was to some day go to SolidWorks World, and the other was to some day go to Mac World. With this cloud business, and platform compatibility through the cloud, those two events may have more in common in the future than they have in the past. Anyway, John said that he may be looking to attend a future SolidWorks World event. I would certainly be one to welcome him.
Overall, in this interview, Mr. McEleney was focussed on delivering cloud services to other businesses who in turn deliver software to end users. He was not commenting directly on application of CAD in specific to the cloud, and said that he was not involved in the development of SolidWorks cloud applications. He is by necessity an optimist when it comes to the cloud, and while he acknowledges some of the unanswered questions and difficulties about applying SolidWorks specifically to the cloud, as a businessman he is not letting those hurdles stand in the way of developing what at least some customers will find useful.
So, while I have no doubt that the cloud will march forward regardless of how many reasons people can find not to implement it, I believe that SolidWorks users still need to play a little devil’s advocate and bring up the questions. Someone may find a clever solution to them.
In closing, I want to thank John for the time he spent with me today on the phone. I think this conversation benefited my understanding of some of the underlying issues, and hope that it did the same for some readers.
Matt,
Great interview! John is someone I’ve always had great respect for.
I can see some sun through the clouds
Matt,
Thanks for a great interview and your continued effort to help us all understand this “cloud” thing a little better. I am really glad to see John surface again as I also have always had a great respect for him. Thanks again for all the hard work and digging in…..:-)
I am sorry, he hasnt changed my mind.
I think that SW on a cloud is corporate BS.
The cloud is obviously more real to people who are selling the software and the concept with future business in mind.
Its still not clear to me if SW will be using his company for their cloud, coincidences aside.
I hope not because that would be just a step too far.
The examples he gave are not applicable to me shifting my CAD from my perfectly good workstn to a remote server and letting someone else profit from it.
Why would I want to do this?
What productivity gain and cost benefit is there?
Give me detail, facts, numbers.
Lets get the boundaries straight. This is my decision affecting my business.
If you cant demonstrate to me a real substantial benefit then it is a money extraction exercise.
Asserting ‘obligation’ and inevitability is as audacious as it is ridiculous..
Beliefs about the applicability of things are not the same as practical results.
I suppose if you have set up a company on the cutting edge of IT fashion and you think you are onto a winner its worth spinning it on some.
Who are these people though to impose what is appropriate for my business and where and how I conduct it?
Perhaps the yet to be delivered masses are not quite as easily led as he imagines.
I have one word for John, Jeff an Bernard and it’s NO.
@Neil
Well, we are going to have a choice for a long time. That’s the bottom line. I can’t imagine this being of much use to me either, aside from communicating with customers, which I can accomplish now. It remains to be seen if the benefits, which are still rather undefined are worth the cost, which is also rather undefined.
Great interview, very informative, I’m still trying to wrap my head around this concept.
Devon Sowell
Well they have already made the choice for you its just going to take a while before A or B diminishes to B for every user. By the sounds of it the core is going to be running in 2 1/2 years. The 10-15 years is the time taken to construct enough DS server farms and then you are cornered…
This needs to be called out as a scam, either that or corporate sized lunacy.
Seriously, SW can go fly their kite somewhere else and take their cloud with them.
Fascinating—thanks for digging in and posting this interview. Some of my previously-voiced objections (such as running post-op applications on output from one program with another) were at least theoretically answered with this post.
I am still on the fence with this technology. I have always been a skeptic and probably will never change. I am all in favor for new technology but as Neil has stated clearly, show me how this will help me to make my business better and if it can be documented, cheaper.
I feel that there is probably some good uses for this technology….Is it the right thing for Solidworks???? I have no idea. In time, we’ll get a better picture of what this can do for the common pee-on like myself. No matter how much we rail against something and voice our displeasure for new technology, it still makes its way to the forefront. I can still remember when CAD was starting out and how I and my co-horts hated it because we were still working on the drafting boards with parallel bars. We all were against it. And who could ever forget what Henry Ford said, “If I gave people what they asked for, they’d all have faster horses.”
Don’t close the book on this technology just yet. You never know what might come out of it.
I appreciate the time you are willing to spend in “investigative journalism”. There is a ton of stuff out there that researchers are working on that quite frankly seems sc-fi but at some point in time may become reality. MS-Intel for instance using electrical patterns from the brain to control PC’s. We know brain activity can be recorded and we know PC’s exist and I suppose at some point in time this could happen.
But as for now considering that as fast as someone developes a “web” program others are standing in line to compromise them. Some of these have the resources of government funding to rely on and their governments are regarding this as a weapon of actual war or at the very least a tool of economic warfare. This does not even get into the arena of corporate espionage which is another whole world of web problems. Some of these are just highly skilled hackers that like to mess around with “the man”. Some are the Russian mafia and their buddies. You can only reliably beat them by avoiding them.
So yes for me as you say Matt there is nothing I need done on the cloud. As Neil says but double it, NO and NO. I am sorry but being visionary does not automaticaly mean being correct and I expect for my lifetime that the solution [ to problems I don't have might I add] that John proposes will not fly in many areas. Reading IT stuff from other venues if they are right all this cloud stuff will suffer setbacks this year as underfunded over promising companies jump onto the cash cow bandwagon and fail.
Have we in the cad community ever had any experience with companies that over promise and underdeliver HMMMM? Get charged anyway though don’t we.
Thanks for the interesting interview, Matt.
Thanks to you Mat and John for making/taking the time and effort to do and report on this topic as you have.
My concerns are well known in this area and they are still to be addressed. I like to throw in another thought applicable to any ‘new thing’; just because something is possible it is not necessary it be used. I said in an earlier posting, the ‘clouds’ benefits need to clearly defined along with the warts and as there is enormous difference in the situation of each CAD users, CAD vendors need to ensure they cover ALL the bases.
Industries demands require CAD tools need to be available to new and experienced users, large and small in very flexible ways; on the surface it would appear the ‘cloud’ would make this possible but in reality, as, the ‘democracy’ of this access will be governed by money it is more likely to leave many unable to participate on its terms. The current model whilst not ideal, from some points of view, at least allows much flexibility in this respect.
CAD companies are going to need to answer many more questions, questions much more difficult to answer than those needed to convince users the switch from drawing board to CAD. They are also going to need to be more transparent and accept more responsibility for their systems than they currently are prepared to do – this will be a major stumbling block!
Paul,
When you buy SW for US$4000+ they give you a DVD and piece of paper telling you you dont actually own it and they can come onto your premises and take it away if they want. Further they want $1300+ from you a year that entitles you to fixes that make that DVD content useable for business 6 months later.
Until now that has been a less than satisfactory deal people have learned to live with.
Now they are assuming to announce physical retention of the software as well, and keep it on remote hardware they provide and maintain for you. They also want to host your data and presumeably cut out 3rd parties.
This is an ownership grab that sucks in money from all over the world to DS France and leaves you with nothing but a browser to look in on what you used to possess and cost you less.
The deafening silence from SW tells you that there isnt any legitimate rationale for this ‘service’ and no real productivity benefit they can nominate thats applicable to smaller business.
Make no mistake about it they have no intention to discuss this with anyone esp people who ask tough questions about it.
They will just sit this out until the thinkers go away.
This hauty contempt for users is typical of SW management in a corner.
Transparency isnt part of the plan and neither is seeking customer approval.
They have determined the cloud is good for you (them).
I think well before they get this heist all locked in SW will find they are taking a back seat to a new comer who is taking away their customers with a genuinely better CAD technology and a fairer deal.
@Neil
Just for once, I’m gonna play the other side of the fence. Because Solidworks will not stand up for themselves, I’m gonna try to do it for them. This is not necessarily because I agree with one side or the other, but mainly because I want to keep this conversation going.
I basically heard someone who might know say that this cloud stuff was introduced WAY too early, and that the call to introduce it came from DS. I speculate it has to do with the cloud software Autodesk released just before SWWorld, project Butterfly. SW needed to show to someone who cares (out of touch analysts or stock holders possibly) that SW can also play in the cloud.
I think the reason there is a deafening silence from SW is that they are relying on customers to help them figure this out. I essentially heard an industry wonk say as much, and when I proposed the idea to McEleney, he said that if it were true, it would reflect brilliance on the part of SW management. I think there will be a time to be very cynical about the cloud pricing structure, but that time has not yet come. Right now SolidWorks needs to hear what we are afraid of, what we would be willing to accept and what we would really like to see.
Thinking about this from SW’s point of view, they are going to have to charge for:
- software purchase price
- software maintenance price
- hardware cost
- administration costs (cost of using the cloud)
So they have to find a way to price it such that you won’t pay less than if you bought the software outright, because declining revenue driven by a new product would be seen as a failure by stock holders and those pesky financial analysts that ask questions that no one understands. I think McEleney’s analogy of buy, lease, rent, taxi is right on. Taxi rides are annoyingly expensive. I would guess SW Cloud by the hour/day/week will also be annoyingly expensive. Even if the server itself is only 10 cents per hour, put SolidWorks on that server, and it is going to cost a lot more.
The stuff McEleney was talking about was entirely directed at companies like SolidWorks, not at end users like you and me. They frankly don’t care about situations in which their scenario won’t work, because they know that some scenarios will work, and that is enough to bank on at present. Look at all the cloud business that happens now, facebook, gmail, online banking, online purchases with credit cards, blogs for that matter, and the list goes on and on. Cloud has already caught on, it is not a matter of waiting for it to catch on. The momentum exists. Its like saying you won’t use the internet to talk to your friends, or for business communication or whatever. Even if you and half of the rest of the world doesn’t do it, the other half will, and they can easily live with half.
The not-so-secret part of this is that the main people who benefit here are the software companies, not the end users. Distributing physical disks is a huge cost, and like documentation, is going the way of the dinosaur. Local installations of complex software is so error prone that eliminating that will save SolidWorks a lot of tech support. Solidworks gets all of this convenience savings, and the users are going to be more constrained about where they can use the software – not really true, the constraints will shift. If SW had their way and moved everything to the cloud, you would not be able to use the software unless you were online. That would be a showstopper for a lot of customers, so it is not possible that SW will change over 100% of users. If you give users the choice, I think less than 50% will move in the first 3 years. On the other hand, you would be able to run Sw on anything connected to the web.
I know McEleney said that there is no conspiracy to jack up prices, but does anyone honestly believe that there is going to be anything resembling “savings” to end users? If you use SW 40% of a 40 hour workweek, will you only have to pay 40% of the purchase price and maintenance? No way. You pay full price today, you’re gonna pay full price plus on the cloud. Jeff Ray is an economist. He’s not a philanthropist or a social worker, so I wouldn’t be looking for any handouts.
Anyway, I don’t believe SW has this all figured out just yet, they are in the process of forming their opinion, so this is why I’m encouraging people to take part in this conversation, and speculate! Take guesses! Say what you’d like to see, tell them what would make it worthwhile for you. There will be time later to complain, but right now is a time to tell them how to get it right.
The ‘cloud’ may have merit but I remain cynical mainly because, like others, I’ve seen the way that SolidWork work – or doesn’t. Given its track record in selling new ideas and then failing to get them working properly why should we believe this will this be any different?
Other problems that spring to mind are internet speeds and unreliability. At present my ISP makes SolidWorks look good. Hard to believe I know. Already I am encountering problems with SW ‘help’ running off the internet. How are they going to get around the issues of confidentiality? I wouldn’t trust SolidWorks with a crook fox let alone hosting my or my clients designs. Past experiences with VAR’s and SolidWorks in this area indicates that getting them to accept confidentiality agreements is problematic. How will they be prosecuted if there are violations? How will we know there are violations?
And why is SolidWorks giving the ‘cloud’ so much attention when there are so many bugs in the software that have been around for so long that need to be addressed. I suspect the simple answer is revenue. Producing reliable software that is simple to use and that meets the requirements of end users probably not the software developers ideal job. It is hard work. But that is what makes good engineering software. Is this development being driven by user needs and wishes?
Many ‘advantages’ being used to sell the ‘cloud’ could equally be introduced into current mode of operation. They haven’t started offering the ‘cloud’ yet and already they are making up stories to make it sound appealing. Matt stated “Of course I had to ask if there was any sort of connection between him joining a cloud company, and SolidWorks announcing that they had been working on cloud applications for 3 years, and he said, quote, “Absolute coincidence”. I’ll take him at his word for that.” I would say I am absolutely certain that we should query this was an absolute coincidence, especially given the general lack of integrity demonstrated in the CAD industry. As they say, in business sincerity is everything. Once you have leaned to fake that you’ve got it made.
Well, the other part to this is that the “cloud’ will be hosted in some third party location, and SolidWorks won’t have any more control over what happens than you will. Any minimum wage floor sweeper with a thumb drive could walk home with gigs of data that he doesn’t know anything about, but could shop around to any of a number of unsavory types.
SW would say that “users expect us to be on the leading edge of technology, not lagging behind it”. I’m not sure users really agree with that, but that’s the justification. I’m sure in the end the business people wouldn’t wake up in the morning unless there were $$$ on the floor.
Yeah, it’s a big circle. The PC was invented to bring everything off of the server and make it local to improve speed and security and convenience. And now we are doing the exact opposite for exactly the same reason. It’s just spin. There are no sacred facts when it comes to selling ideas.
Oh, that’s beautiful. Love it.
Heh Matt!
“Distributing physical disks is a huge cost, and like documentation, is going the way of the dinosaur.”
I have an invioce siting beside right now for a subscription package for the latest AutoCAD, sent from Singapore to Aust. and its declared value is $5.OO Aust.’
Not sure that is a ‘huge cost’ actually or is Autodesk doing something dodgy?
@matt
Ok Matt seeing as how you like to keep the conversation going..
The unfortunate part about this matter so far for SW is that after making a very public promissory splash with ‘the cloud’ at SWW they have nothing to put out there following it up and fleshing out the practical detail.
People *are* left to speculate and interpret for themselves.
They ask obvious and sensible questions and have to provide their own best fit answers and guesses.
All said and done no one knows. A large corporate made a major announcement that changes the way we work and at the end no one knows.
I dont think this is genius at all. Its a PR and marketing disaster.
If this open season on the SW cloud initiative continues for much longer the ‘cloud’ will need damage control and rehabilitation before it can be sold.
If they do have facts and figures they better get them out here sooner rather than later when they think believe they have spectated enough on reaction in the hopes of learning something about the veracity of what it is they have already spent 20 months pursuing.
If it was worth embarking on this project it ought to be easy to wheel out a whole lot of bullet points that spell out what the Swcloud is and does for users and all the relevant detail necessary to make business decisions for the near future.
Rather than continuing to promote with substance the ensuing vacuum means by default they are opening themselves up to scrutiny of their motives, suspicions about conflicted business interests, derision about their lack of indepth analysis and preparation of a business case, questions about top level management ability to set direction and respond to competitors, and possibly ultimately ridicule if it all caves in.
If enough people decide for themselves the cloud isnt a happening thing either because they correctly or incorrectly judge it from what info they can glean, this is going to stick with SW as a major fail and they are going to attract a lot of bad comment about a bungled and wasted effort.
Clouds are relevant to some situations. I dont think CAD is one of them.
If they have to rely on their users to figure this out for them after the big announcement I wonder if anyone important has much grasp of the business they are in or if they are competant enough to hold a responsible position.
This is a self inflicted mess. They are getting murdered by their own silence.
Autodesk must be laughing hard at this one.
You make some good points Matt though they raise further questions. For example, if there is a breach of security, with two companies involved there is likely to be a lot of finger pointing going on. I also query whether rapidly adopting new interface technologies that are still being developed are what engineers want. I’d prefer to wait until there is an obvious benefit to the user and the technology being developed externally has matured. In this case the impetus seems to be coming from SolidWorks.
I remain suspicious, but these forums have at least encouraged me to engage on this topic and learn more about what is on offer. Interviews with the people concerned are helpful in dispelling some of the suspicion and queries. Personally I cannot see myself moving on this for a long time. But as they say, never say never.
@Neil
Neil,
We’ll be releasing additional information in the coming months. As Jeff was clear to point out regarding what we showed on February 1, what we showed was a preview of some technology we’re working on in the lab. There is no new product yet, there is no name, there is no timeline.
One thing he did say regarding the Product Data Sharing technology is that we’re currently hoping to start making that available later this year. That will be our first actual “cloud-based” offering, and you can be sure that we’ll be making more information about that available later in the year.
Matthew,
I’m not exactly sure now what was announced or might have been retracted some.
I’ve worked out enough in the absence of company info about how it probably works to reject it as inappropriate for my business needs.
Unfortunately I dont think cloud offerings will interest me enough to follow along with any additional info released over a period of months or years..
Thanks for the thought though.
I’m usually one to bitch about everything and fear new technology, but i was thinking about the uses for cloud computing the other day and the current trends and while not ground breaking would seem to make our lives a lot easier.
The way i envision the benefits would be like this :
an OS, an interface, all your data… accessible on all your computing related devices.
At work on a powerful machine, head to lunch and continue working on that document without having to save upload/download to ur phone.. just pick up and continue where you left off on a completely different machine..
Get back to work and jump into CAD. Don’t have to worry about saving every 10 mins (does it automatically for u.. see gmail draft emails) Finish your work day. No “save, upload/download, shutdown” routine. Just walk away..
Get home.. continue where you left off using your own computer/notebook/netbook/tv/tablet/phone whatever..
It’s all the same. all your settings are there. Everything you have ever worked on is at your fingertips. it’s even organised for you (ok i’m stretching it a bit here) and you just don’t have to think about :
* where you put things
* why you put it there
* what’s your backup procedure
* how to get your home machine to work like your office machine
* trying to remember where you put that link to the really interesting site you found at work
etc etc..
it’s all there. it all works the same. it’s your life. online/offline(some type of auto syncing between off and online would be definitely required so you don’t lost data when you are in areas with no internet)
If the cloud was that, and it was secure and your entire user file was encrypted to the highest level..(but that does sound like the plot to a movie where all your records were erased..hehe) then that might be an improvement over what we have currently.
Security would be the most contentious issue here though. they have similar systems for gaming on ps3, xbox, pc etc.. “your gaming life, online”…. While this has done well, and i don’t have a problem with putting all my game characters details online; i’m not sure that i am personally ready to put my entire livelihood into the hands of someone else.
Also, microsoft has banned a bunch of xbox users for piracy and cheating.. and while that’s totally acceptable.. it means that someone is policing your data. Which could be scary in the business sense. What if an ex-customer or a competitor gave false information about your company and said you had ripped them off or something like that and the cloud provider decided to penalise you for that and disabled your service or deleted your account and data?
The policing issue is quite scary, because not only are you putting all of your precious data into the hands of a stranger to take care of (their employees could steal from you) but if they start to police accounts, then they could play judge jury and executioner and delete everything you have ever done and completely destroy you in a matter of minutes.
I know i have seen far too many movies with a plot related to this, but it could happen and that thought scares me quite a bit.
Indeed you could work anywhere and everywhere thanks to the cloud.
Before work. On the way to work. At work. In the toilets. After work. In the weekends. On holiday…
Even the most humble device is a portal to work and the social network surrounding work.
Work would be always accessible just like you never left it.
You have no excuses for not being connected and engaged in work, thinking about work or talking about work.
If you are carrying a phone with a 2″ screen you can be a CAD jockey.
Left hand, holding coffee now. Black.
Right hand, mating 20,000 part assy. Easily.
Topping up cloud account to finish drawing.
Date left with guy table 2. Has 8″. Size matters…
Looking over A1 render with magnifying glass. No handle.
Finished! Sending to client. 1:15am Dec 25.
Wow thanks DS.
Great technology.
Great company.
Yes, the pitch sounds great at the beginning, but when you realise your boss is even more excited the appeal wears off very quickly.
Can you image how much more productive/slave-like we will be?
The more i think about it, the less excited i get.
Office space—generally speaking—only exists now as cultural legacy. We’ve very little need of it anymore except for the meeting of minds (which, also, can be done via the cloud already). Because the traditional office is already on thin ice in terms of ROI, I’m guessing the coming wave of commercial real estate bubble-bursting will be especially harsh. Why pay double rent for the same area? Why waste so much daily time in a traffic-jammed commute? Why not stay home and get paid per output (as opposed to showing up at an office and getting paid per hour)?
After all, I’ve been without commercial office space since the 20th century, and somehow stay quite competitive with “traditional” design firms while typing this post at 9,000′ altitude in a tiny mountain town in Colorado. Odd.
@Derek Bishop
It wasn’t “they” who said “Sincerity is everything. Once you can fake that you’ve got it made”, it was Mark Twain.
Thanks for that Jerry. I thought it was someone famous, now I know!