SkyDrive and Consumer Cloud Services
- by Tim Murphy
Paul Thurrrott recently posted an article on the future of SkyDrive and I was asked what I thought about its future by @UserCommunity. So let’s take a look. The breakdown from Microsoft that Paul described I believe is an accurate representation of users and usages. While I can’t say that I leverage SkyDrive to the extent that it was meant to be I do enjoy having OneNote hosted their and being able to consult and edit it from the desktop, web and Windows Phone. Taking that one step further is the Midwest Geeks group which started as the community of Microsoft related user groups in our region uses SkyDrive groups and shares calendars and documents. This collaboration aspect isn’t new in itself, but having it connected with the rest of your cloud assets makes life easier. Another recent usage of this type of cloud service is storing your personal music files in order to get that same universal access. This is a scenario that has some arguments for and against. On the one hand own once and listen anywhere is great, but the on the other hand the bandwidth cost becomes a giant downside. This is especially the case since most carriers are now doing away with unlimited data packages. Ultimately I see this type of resource growing an evolving at a phenomenal rate over the next few years as we continue to become more mobile. Having multiple players such as SkyDrive and iCloud will only help to give us more options. Only time will tell where we end up next. del.icio.us Tags: SkyDrive,Cloud Services,Paul Thurrott,UserCommunity