Cloud computing and mobile computing go hand in hand. The key is to create the channels through which information can flow from data centre to data centre and organisation to organisation and extend that further to reach and provide a flow of information to devices of any type.
In terms of applications and information, security can be enforced within the information, in the device and access point and policies can be applied wherever data is being served.
The service provider world needs to move to complement the enterprise’s hunger for information on the move. The service provider world is being dramatically changed, both as a provider of services to computers that in a traditional sense went through portals and web services and also to mobile devices over mobile network transport.
One of the ideas that has come out of the recent innovation conference in Cork is the notion of a constellation cloud for personal information and sharing in the home. It’s about having all your information in the home, such as music, videos, financial information, and being able to stream data and show off on web and store on home mass storage where you can share data anywhere in the home. But what if I can link to other devices and create a secure peer-to-peer mesh – an elemental cloud? For example, a mobile worker who, when they leave home, can access information on their phone and seamlessly pull information stored at home.
We are seeing this beginning to happen whereby the connection between the individual and the information and applications, whether those are business organisations or one’s own home environment, are available whenever you want them but in a secure way.
The idea that won out overall is healthcare applications for the cloud, which comes from a technological opportunity and a social challenge. In developing nations, where villages and individuals in rural communities do not have access to nearby facilities like hospitals, there’s an urgent need to reach an individual, collect information and evaluate and analyse care recommendations provided in the physically distributed environment via mobile broadband and Wi-Fi. We think there are real opportunities to produce cloud storage applications for the healthcare space.
