In the past week, I have seen a couple of articles that discuss the lack of awareness of the Cloud in the general public. The following, from the Globe and Mail summarizes quite nicely.
“While cloud computing is growing increasingly pervasive, a new survey shows how many people are still cloudy in their thinking about the technology.” - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-tools/small-business-briefing/cloudy-thinking-about-cloud-computing/article4504986/
The survey includes tidbits like 54% of people don’t think they use cloud computer (only 5% don’t), only 16% identify it correctly and (this one is my favorite) 51% believe that stormy weather can interfere with cloud computer.
(As an aside, I just got back from Punta Cana, where the Internet (and thus cloud computing) was turned off for two days while Tropical Storm Isaac passed through. Pretty certain that’s stormy weather interfering. :))
My comment about this state of affairs is: Who Cares?
What percentage of people have a working knowledge of the internal combustion engine? And yet a majority of people are quite able to drive without this knowledge. How many people have even the most basic understanding of how electricity is generated? And yet they don’t have a problem turning on a light.
Those of us in technology seem to think that it’s important to have others understand what we do. Perhaps it’s a need to appear smart. Perhaps we’re looking for acceptance after spending high school being given wedgies and swirlies. Doesn’t matter. I no more expect the average user of the technology I create to know how it works than I do my mother. And you shouldn’t either.
It should be completely transparent to the user where we put their information. The applications that we create should seamless transition between local storage, on-premise storage and the ‘cloud’. The user should only be aware of this when they use their phone to access the Word document they were writing before they left the office. Actually, I’m wrong. They shouldn’t care even then.
And that’s how you should be building your applications. Seamless integration between the various storage options. This isn’t necessarily the easiest choice for developer. Seamless == more work. But tools like the the Windows Azure Mobile Services can help. But don’t let the user know…they don’t care. They shouldn’t. All of their data should just be there. Like electricity