Recently Apple announced iCloud to predictable media interest.

I swear their business strategy is to put an ‘i’ in front of existing technology and claim they invented it. One day I’ll register ‘iApple’ and see it hit the fan big-time. So while the technology is nothing new, it was interesting to see Apple directly articulate the idea that your apps and data live in the cloud which you access from a range of devices. Is this the future? Centralised software with a variety of hardware gadgets such as your PC or tablet or phone accessing it as and when you want? I think for a variety of reasons we will see a resurgence of centralised software and data. The first is the rise of a post-PC world where computing ability is expected to be everywhere and not just at a desk. Centralising is the simplest way of sharing and moving data between such devices. The second is security which may seem a bit strange considering the data is no longer local. The cloud could decide when and to whom data is offered, wiping from devices that no longer need it so no more secret MOD data being lost on a stolen laptop. Digital rights management (DRM) becomes much easier. Centralising the software also removes the headache of keeping machines up-to-date and virus free. Devices become slaves to the central control, updated and configured remotely. Of course this future isn’t the be-all and end-all. It depends on fantastic [no-glossary]network[/no-glossary] connections, and there are clearly issues of interoperability and vendor lock-in. Clever people will get around security and not everyone will want someone else storing their documents and data so it becomes another model of computing alongside others. But considering how rubbish most people are at securing and maintaining their stuff it’s going to be attractive to many. The now sadly defunct Sun Microsystems’ motto was “the network is the computer”. 25 years later it’s interesting to see everyone else catching up.