Desktop giving way to the cloud, poll says

sfgate.com

5 points·gibsonf1··3 comments

I remain sceptical. Latency kills productivity. A desktop application running on the machine in front of you can still have "cloud" functionality provided by cloud-based APIs managed by the vendor. The desktop is not orthogonal to the cloud.

The real advantages of the cloud (when considering the cloud as a "desktop alternative") are a known, homogeneous execution environment, easy installation, updates and maintenance. However, these advantages are all a consequence of the existing ecosystem, not fundamental advantages of the cloud.

I am also a bit weary of predicting the decline of local storage and apps for the home user. The correct headline of the article should be "Local desktops giving way to hosted desktops".

Nearly all enterprise level corporations are either already using private cloud services (citrix style solutions) with thin clients or are doing a migration to them for exactly the advantages you listed.

I think that what is for sure is that we will see this paradigm trickle down more and more throughout the workplace, with progressively smaller companies having deploying their own desktop visualization systems, with employees either using thin clients or bringing their personal laptops to work.

I agree. The future that seems likely to me is one in which most things exist both locally and in the cloud. Syncing and redundancy. Web apps that are also native. It's not "cloud xor desktop". We can have both.

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