James Drogan

In Reflections on Cloud Computing Wladawsky-Berger provides is with valuable points of view on this development.

However, the usefulness of cloud computing is dependent upon the nature of connectivity to the cloud, a matter we should not, in my experience, take for granted.  The characteristics of this connectivity are that it is everwhere, available all of the time, and has sufficient capacity.

Experiences with RIM, my own personal experiences at my instituion and my cable network, the enormous gulps of capacity being taken from present networks by the rise of video, suggest to me that there is substantial ground to be covered before cloud computing rises as a real preference.

And there is more.  In A Small View of a Possible World I raise the question whether being always on, always connected, always transacting  is a good thing.

I don't mean to be a naysayer to Wladawsky-Berger's comments, but rather to say that we should exercise some caution when it comes to the seduction of technology (see Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Penguin Books, 2000, 0-140-28202-5 for a point of view that ought to stimulate thinking).