Midori - The true future of 'cloud' computing?

First, let me reference the article that's put me on this topic.  This is an excellent article, one I really hope everyone reads.  It's an incredibly detailed (and hopefully accurate) article describing what Microsoft is hoping to accomplish in their MSR incubation project for the next generation OS's.

http://www.sdtimes.com/content/article.aspx?ArticleID=32627

Remember the days of DOS?  Then the Mac OS and Windows 95 came along and completely changed that dynamic.  Then Mac OSX, a completely new rebuilt concept from Apple that revolutionized their product line.  Windows Vista/Server 2008 is also a huge leap from the Windows 2000/XP family which were a huge leap from the Win95/98 family.  (No one ever claims ME, that's the red headed step child.)  None of these will be the leap that Midori could be.

This concept of 'cloud computing' that Google, Yahoo, and essentially every company out there has been touting and saying is the wave of the future has never made any sense to me.  The one company to essentially stay silent (comparatively speaking) has been Microsoft on this subject, which I was glad to hear.  It's like jumping on the many times dis-proven global warming hysteria.  You just do it because it's 'cool' and makes you somehow 'in the know.'  Apparently MS has had something under wraps which from my perspective is the true next evolution of computer interfaces and I hope it actually makes it to market intact.

Here's why the current 'cloud computing' model doesn't make sense to me.  I come from the Enterprise world and most of my perspective is going to be skewed from that.  Google is a great example as they are the ones pushing this currently perceived model so much.  They are constantly creating these 'virtual apps' that are completely web based replacements for desktop applications.  Their office applications is a great example.  While working with another company on a project who was using Google apps I used them myself.  Honestly, I expected more.  The functionality wasn't there, it was ugly as sin (seriously, have you used Google's spreadsheet app?  I felt like I was back on Word Perfect and trying to remember the keyboard commands) and where would I store my documents?  Also, Google hasn't met any of it's profit projections for the last 4 quarters.  Why do you think that is?  Giving everything away hasn't worked.  Ad revenue?  Who's paying attention to ads when they are working on a spreadsheet.  If anything, that just irritates me as it's a distraction while I'm trying to work.

Here's where the enterprise will never go for it.  Enterprise, especially large companies want to control their own data.  That's why things such as Sharepoint are so attractive to the enterprise.  I can have a fantastic collaborative intranet that's securely accessible from anywhere in the world for all of my employees with granular security (in the cloud per se) but all it's data is stored on MY servers, on MY SAN, in MY datacenter.  Thinking that the enterprise is just going to allow it's data to sit on Google servers (who's proven their trustworthy with our privacy, hahaha) or anyone else's servers is just living in a fantasy land.  That's not a change that's going to happen any time soon.

Now, I'm not a developer, I gave that up years ago when I realized I was writing programs 10 times longer than they should be because I was avoiding doing algorithms.  (Yes, I suck at math.)  But the concept of a cross platform Operating System designed from the ground up to be compartmentalized, componentized, and distributed (across cores, local LAN machines and yes over the cloud) while accessing storage in the same way seems like the far more logical fit to me.  Allowing the Enterprise to still maintain their own servers and datastores/applications while providing a uniform and universally accessible interface across devices and cyberspace without sacrificing the power of the local application is a very compelling future to me.

I truly hope that Midori will become what MS hopes it will be.  But, don't get your hopes up.  Longhorn had a lot of promise too that realistically couldn't be brought fully to fruition in a logical time table.  I think that's why Microsoft is taking it's time with Midori and keeping quiet.  They want to get this one right, and I hope they do.

So, read the article and tell us... What do you think?

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