Cloud computing is a particularly inefficient and costly thing to do. And cloud computing will make us stop doing this...
Cloud computing will eliminate windows
Managing the client machine operating system is a particularly inefficient and costly thing. Cloud computing will stop us from doing it. Eric Knorr from InfoWorld offers the idea of introducing a note: Maybe Microsoft should get out of its current windows business and focus on public cloud computing.
In the 1990s, I studied the client operating system, including Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 and several Unix versions, and in my subconscious I thought it was futile because we were concerned about the wrong things.
Was it a mistake to focus first on the customer operating system, then the mobile operating system? Why? First, it's too complicated to include almost everything. If you support the customer operating system, you're spreading complexity, because people pay for the Windows or any other client OS that they support, and what they're most likely telling you is that the system is too large to make it complex and difficult to use.
For example, there are thousands of copies of Windows in the enterprise, each with different configurations, versions, and applications, and usually mixed with a large number of viral software and bug applications. Technical support teams maintain updates, track applications, and constantly respond to information security threats. This costs at least a few million dollars a year.
The current opportunity is to provide application and operating system services from the central server. This is absolutely the latest -- for example, we want to have time-sharing, remote access, and virtual desktops for a long time, but now cloud technology can make this a reality. Microsoft, as a traditional customer operator, is the best example of how applications, features, and functions can be placed in cloud-based technologies that users can consume on demand.
This cloud-centred structure allows IT to place complexity in the central domain. Any software change or update can take effect immediately, and only upgrades need to be directed to a single virtual machine. Through the rental management system, everyone can access the same operating system, storage system, file system, and application. These are centralized management, public support issues such as set-up management, updating, patching and application permit management, which will be far removed from us, and the cost will be significantly reduced.
If you think about the PC, MAC, and mobile terminals you're using now, it's already happening. Most of the applications based on the client machine (desktops and mobile terminals) have some kind of back-office service, which is typical of cloud computing. That's not the case 10 years ago.
While I think most of us are not prepared to abandon customer operating systems, such as Windows, I believe that the world will change a lot in the coming years, and we should follow it. The focus will be on cloud technology, not customer machines, which is just a matter of time.
The author, David S. Linthicum, is a cloud computing consultant and is also an internationally renowned industrial expert and thinker.
This paper was translated by Shanghai Group Cadastre Electronics Technology Ltd. and Shanghai Group Chip Electronics Technology Ltd. provided outsourcing of electronic product development to enterprises.