From the Author
This guide to cloud computing was written in the first four months of 2010. During that period the US Airforce signed a cloud computing deal with IBM. A company called Layar also announced the first commercial augmented reality app store, while Google released Google Googles, the first visual search application. Not to be outdone, Apple launched its highly anticipated iPad tablet to provide a new means of accessing the cloud. And perhaps most amazingly, even Microsoft `went cloud’ with a new cloud services website, the launch of its Azure platform, and a claim by CEO Steve Ballmer that he is `betting the company’ on cloud computing.
As these developments hopefully illustrate, cloud computing is now far more than hype. Understanding the Cloud Computing Revolution is therefore pretty essential for anybody wanting to use computers more effectively, advance their career, or manage a business more successfully.
Within a decade cloud computing will be essential to be competitive, to be green, and to enable innovation. None of us can therefore ignore cloud computing. Our only real choice is whether we want to be part of the cloud computing steamroller of the traditional computing road.
From the Back Cover
Cloud Computing is the next revolution and will have as much impact as the introduction of the PC. Using websites including Facebook, Flickr and Gmail, many people already store some information out in the Internet cloud. However, within a few years most computing applications and data will be accessed online with the web at the heart of everything we do.
In this valuable guide, Christopher Barnatt explains how computing will rapidly become more reliable, less complex, and more environmentally friendly. He explores online software and hardware, and how it will alter our office work and personal lives. Individuals and companies are going to be released from the constraints of desktop computing and expensive corporate data centres. New services like augmented reality will also become available.
Including coverage of Google Docs, Zoho, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and other key developments, this book is your essential guide to the cloud computing revolution.
About the Author
Christopher Barnatt is Associate Professor of Computing & Future Studies in Nottingham University Business School, and the author of ExplainingComputers.com, ExplainingTheFuture.com and their popular YouTube channels. He has written five previous books on computing and future studies, and lectures and consults widely on cloud computing and Web 2.0. Christopher also appears regularly on TV and the radio. You can follow him in the cloud at twitter.com/ChrisBarnatt.
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