Between the hype and the downturn, all you seem to hear about these days is cloud computing. I recently wrote about how tacos are edging towards the cloud services business, and analyst firm IDC says tough times will drive more customers to cloud services as right-sized, zero-CAPEX alternatives to on-premise applications.
I have no doubt that’s true. But I also think, based on my own recent experience, that there’ll be a backlash at some point against cloud services that are slow, kludgy or just plain not reliable. For example:
I recently blogged about SIMtone, which wants to replace your conventional PC with an ultra-inexpensive device that’s little more than an antenna and a display, relying on anywhere, anytime, broadband connections to access a virtual PC running in a far-off data center. Awesome vision – and I might trust my applications to a wireless carrier when I can move from one side of my suburban Boston office to the other without losing the connection on my cell phone.
Or consider Salesforce.com, whose sales of its Web-based CRM application grew 34 percent in the most recent quarter despite the recession. Sure, there’s no software to install and maintain on my local PC. But waiting for the screen to refresh over the Web is like watching paint try. Having to log on each time I want to run Salesforce is a pain, as is having a browser crash or losing connectivity, trashing the data I just entered. Finding names and attaching files in Salesforce is far slower than in Outlook – and it was sure fun when Salesforce hopefully forced me to reset my password in the middle of a busy day prospecting.
Hey, Salesforce is a lot richer than I am, so they’re doing something right -- especially in a downturn. But I suspect when times get good again that users will want far faster, more intuitive, and easier to use applications than the current crop of cloud apps. As for giving up my “thick client” PC? Only when my cell phone service is as reliable as my local hard drive.
And if you're pitching cloud services, explain how you or your client are going to deliver the basics (reliabiity, speed and an intuitive user interface) before explaining how you're going to change the world. Nothing sinks an earth-changing vision faster than inability to deliver the basics.
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