IT in the Cloud

Get used to it – the term “cloud” is becoming ubiquitous in the IT world.  ZDNet offers up a futuristic look at a clash between two titans – Google and Apple (and somehow Wal-Mart is forgotten in the opening, but not in the story).  First, a primer on cloud computing:

…the holy grail of digital media – a cloud-based shelf where collections of music and movies and probably photos, too, will be housed for streaming playback anywhere there’s a Web connection, including a mobile phone or a fancy new tablet.

And in this corner, Apple:

Apple certainly has the lead here with its popular line of iPod and iPhone – and soon the iPad – devices to keep people engaged with and entertained by their digital media libraries. But they want to make sure you have plenty of storage to buy buy buy even more digital content – so they’re taking a play out of the Google playback to push the cloud. First, it was music. Now, it’s movies.

And in the other corner, Google:

Google, which is also making some moves toward content in the cloud, is big on multi-platform and open source these days and the idea of being able to stream content to all devices – instead of just those behind the proprietary iWall – is something that the content providers, as well as consumers, could prefer.

For me, I see the open source option of Google having better legs at this point.  Apple gets customer because of their astute marketing department.  It is cool to own Apple anything.  They have excellent products and are consumer savvy, but they are still a proprietary platform for lack of a better phrase.

My guess is that Google plows a new path for open source options that eventually win the market share war.