Top Cloud Innovations of 2012

This year the cloud has grown—have you kept up?

Assuming the world doesn’t end at the end of December, this year might just be remembered as the “Year of the Cloud”. Everyone knows about online storage applications, and why they’re a good idea, but what else has rained down to us from up there? Well, this year the Cloud has seen a lot of innovations, broadening its relevance from every day consumers, to multi-billion dollar companies, and it’s doing it by becoming:

1. Social

With companies like CloudApp that are utilizing and promoting open source code and giving out their API to developers to utilize in their own applications, Cloud companies are making it easier for both larger and smaller companies to tailor cloud based applications to their specific needs.  On the more personal end of the spectrum, Waze is an app for your mobile devices (iOS, Android, Windows, etc) that allows users to update their cities with traffic information, with the net result that users can see live updated information about their commute, city or highway construction, and even events like street fairs.

2. Mobile

Waze is just one of many companies utilizing the cloud in a mobile environment. DropBox, Box.net, Github, Google, and many more are releasing full featured mobile apps, many for free. It’s now become easier than ever to synchronize your documents, files, and media between all of your devices. So whether you’re syncing your latest iPhone 5 photo, jotting down notes on your ultra light laptop, or rendering and sending out video from your new desktop, it’s never been easier to keep them all connected.

While some applications still have a way to go (I’m looking at you Google Drive) others have really stepped up their game. Box.net for example have consistently been upgrading their app to include features like Customizable synchronization and uploading files to discreet folders. Other companies like Romanian startup SkinScan, are legitimately trying to save people’s lives with mobile apps that can alert them of potentially cancerous moles.

3. User Friendly

The cloud isn’t just a business term any more, and it’s not just some techy phrase with a description as ethereal as its name. Companies like Spotify are changing how we feel about the cloud, and are making it much a part of everyday life. Audiobox.fm is in the same genre, but has allowed users to stream the music they already own, to any device they have.

Operating systems are even becoming more Cloud oriented. Windows 8 for example is heavily cloud integrated, meaning that with a few clicks, you can set up your computer to store everything securely in the cloud, all connected via your Windows Live ID, making it easily and safely accessible from anywhere.

4. Functional

Evernote has made the cloud indispensible for students, as it gathers snippets from websites you’re reading, or applications you’re using, and categorizes them so that information can be synced and searched from multiple devices. Services like Hojoki have taken the concept of linked in and the usefulness of the Salesforce messaging application, and combines them to allow you network with people you know, and the people they know, to collaborate on awesomeness.

5. The Future

Everything is in the cloud now. The phrase has become prevalent in conversation it’s becoming cliché to even say it. Really, it’s just becoming redundant to say “it’s in the cloud” because everyone already knows it is… even if they don’t know it is. Your photos are all online, your documents can be shared easily, you can listen to your music from wherever and whenever, and you never have to leave your daily routine to find everyone and everything you’ll need to accomplish whatever project you’re about to undertake. Everything is in the cloud, or maybe it’s more accurately stated that, the cloud is everything.

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Source : techtalkafrica[dot]com