Jolibook is up in the Cloud

Cloudcomputing; “Web-based processing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices (such as smartphones) on demand over the Internet”, (Source Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing) has, up until now, largely been employed by companies seeking to reduce infrastructure and software costs.  Jolicloud would like to change that and may be successful.  They have just announced that the launch of their first netbook; the Jolibook, powered by their proprietary OS, will be in the UK.    The Jolibook is the first of its kind and marks the beginning of a revolution in Cloudcomputing.  No longer reserved for Small and Medium businesses, Cloudcomputing is revolutionizing the Netbook industry and if Jolicloud has its way their OS may appear on corporate workstations in the very near future.

Most large companies already use Software as a Service in order to fulfill their business practices and spend large amounts of money on the maintenance of the workstations.  The Windows OS can be complicated to navigate for a novice user, who unfortunately, is usually the end user in these firms and thus, switching to the Jolicloud OS could enhance productivity and reduce maintenance costs.  These are just the obvious benefits.  I expect that we will see further benefits surface as this becomes more popular and its use becomes more widespread.  The main disadvantage surrounding the use of Cloudcomputing on a large scale is the ability to maintain data confidentiality and integrity.  Since the data is being stored by a third party, control is limited.  Hopefully privacy laws will catch up in light of the recent Facebook fiasco.

Streaming sites killing TV?

   "Dish Network Vice-President of Online Content Development and Strategy, Bruce Eisen" stated at a conference Nov. 3rd that streaming sites such as Hulu will "destroy the television industry as we know it".  At first glance I do understand his point of view, but is that really a bad thing?  What is not mentioned are the details about the target audience for these sites.  Generally speaking, people who do use streaming sites do not have cable television or have a basic version that does not give them access to premium sites such as HBO.  They can not afford or are not willing to pay for this service.  In essence, if a suitable substitute is available at a lower price then people will opt for that alternative.  HBO has stated that they have not seen any evidence of switching and thus this is not the issue.  It seems to be the cable companies that stand to lose the most, or will they?  It is up to them to adopt their business model to adjust their revenue streams to factor in these new alternatives.  Instead of paying for cable television, consumers will pay for broadband internet.  This emerging trend is not something they will be able to stop and in order to survive they must adapt. 
   As a consumer I would gladly pay a small fee to have access to content, even if it was delayed a certain period of time to avoid cannibalization.  Case in point, Netflix launched on XBOX Live and as soon as the new dashboard was downloaded I installed Netflix and have been enjoying it since.