Android And Cloud Computing

Android startups and companies have been embracing cloud trends. Dropbox, Instagram, Spotify, Pinterest and companies such as Samsung have been leveraging cloud computing technologies to provide innovation. According to a recent article by The Guardian, it is predicted cloud will power exciting innovations that will touch every area of our lives. The article also highlights key four cloud computing trends that are set to become big in 2014.

Cloud will enable your content to follow you wherever you go

Cloud has changed how we interact with mobile devices. In the past content would be moved to the device, now devices are just a window to content and services that live in the cloud. This started with our smartphones and tablets, where regardless of which device we use, or the location, we have access to our content and subscriptions.

The cloud is already the place where researchers collaborate

The cloud is already the place where researchers collaborate on data that flows in real-time from devices such as the Mars rover or the Ilumina DNA sequencer into cloud storage. In 2014 expect an explosion in data generation by real-world devices and where that data is stored, analysed and shared in the cloud.

The cloud allows everyone to become a media company

In 2014 expect a great rise in organisations that are adding media capabilities to their offerings. A good example is sports clubs; all are looking for ways to establish an engagement with their fan base beyond the two hours on a weekend. A successful way to achieve a weeklong engagement is by daily distribution or fresh, exclusive media content. The subscription revenues for clubs that often have millions of fans around the world are substantial.

Faster and faster, cloud moves data processing to real-time

Up until this point big data has very much focused on looking historically - people who brought product X also brought product Y, the market moved in this direction last week so is likely to move in that direction now. There has always been a close relationship between big data and cloud computing as it requires no limits in terms of compute and storage but by adding real-time processing capabilities, we will see a rise in data analytics that are able to produce results for in real-time, radically changing the products companies can build.

*The Guardian

Gartner also predicted the following 2014 Cloud Trends:

Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker

Bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is an imperative. Enterprises should design private cloud services with a hybrid future in mind and make sure future integration/interoperability is possible. Hybrid cloud services can be composed in many ways, varying from relatively static to very dynamic. Managing this composition will often be the responsibility of something filling the role of cloud service broker (CSB), which handles aggregation, integration and customization of services. Enterprises that are expanding into hybrid cloud computing from private cloud services are taking on the CSB role. Terms like "overdrafting" and "cloudbursting" are often used to describe what hybrid cloud computing will make possible. However, the vast majority of hybrid cloud services will initially be much less dynamic than that. Early hybrid cloud services will likely be more static, engineered compositions (such as integration between an internal private cloud and a public cloud service for certain functionality or data). More deployment compositions will emerge as CSBs evolve (for example, private infrastructure as a service [IaaS] offerings that can leverage external service providers based on policy and utilization).

Cloud/Client Architecture

Cloud/client computing models are shifting. In the cloud/client architecture, the client is a rich application running on an Internet-connected device, and the server is a set of application services hosted in an increasingly elastically scalable cloud computing platform. The cloud is the control point and system or record and applications can span multiple client devices. The client environment may be a native application or browser-based; the increasing power of the browser is available to many client devices, mobile and desktop alike. Robust capabilities in many mobile devices, the increased demand on networks, the cost of networks and the need to manage bandwidth use creates incentives, in some cases, to minimize the cloud application computing and storage footprint, and to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device. However, the increasingly complex demands of mobile users will drive apps to demand increasing amounts of server-side computing and storage capacity.

The Era of Personal Cloud

The personal cloud era will mark a power shift away from devices toward services. In this new world, the specifics of devices will become less important for the organization to worry about, although the devices will still be necessary. Users will use a collection of devices, with the PC remaining one of many options, but no one device will be the primary hub. Rather, the personal cloud will take on that role. Access to the cloud and the content stored or shared from the cloud will be managed and secured, rather than solely focusing on the device itself.

Infosys

What are your thoughts on mobile computing and the cloud? Customer satisfaction in reliability is highly important if unreliability negatively affects the consumer. Cloud challenges are getting better. Today its also a benefit to know that the cloud challenges are more transparent in the industry and maturing.