An IT era without hardware and software

Do you see the cloud is coming? Soon, you will not buy hardware and software. Well, you still need a basic computer to type and connect the Internet. But your company will have no more a data center with all the wired servers. They are over the cloud. And the software to run your company, like the ERP system, the email system, the database, and the computation software, are all running on the cloud. And the pieces of the software are interconnected and interoperated. You will have a what so called collaborative working environment where you can connect to your colleagues, the database, the files, and the internal and external info you need for your work.

Is the cloud far away? Check the saleforce.com’s work. They bring the cloud over your head. It is very ambitious of them to provide the whole solution from the hosting service to the development process. You can build your IT solution on top of their service. You do not need people to do the backup, to maintain the hardware, and to keep the server running. But you still need developers to develop new business apps for your own company. That is going to be your IT department. So, the CIO’s function is reduced, and more close to the business operation.

What Google Nexus is not good

I am using Google Nexus phone for about one month. I should say it is not a phone with high quality. It more like a prototype with good ideas. But the phone is not very solid as iPhone or Blackberry. I just compare it with iPhone3.

1. The battery life is shorter than iPhone.
2. The GPS is way too slow. You cannot use it effectively, because it could not locate your location fast and precise enough. You end up with an electronic map and you figure out where you are by yourself. iPhone is not like that.
3. The default apps are not good. So you need to download third party apps and see the ads around.
4. No tapping sound on the soft keyboard, which is not a good experience.
5. The back lid is too hard to open.
6. Initialization problem. See my poster on June 22.
User experience is above all for the smart phone. So you can see the Android market will stop increasing to some extent.