Cloud computing is one of those buzzwords you either love or hate. The concept, led by the likes of Google and Amazon, allows companies, big and small, to tap into the power of the Internet giants. The 
cloud is a virtual resource where companies can store information and be reasonably assured the service will be there when they need it.
Broadly speaking, people use the cloud when they open the browser on their mobile phone and access the Internet. More specifically, Apple’s MobileMe service stores e-mail, contacts and calendars in the cloud and sends updates instantly to the iPhone or iPod Touch. The service keeps all the information in an online server, or cloud, so everything stays in sync.
Of course, cloud computing is a big focus at Google; Google Apps are powered in the cloud. But Google has not talked much about the potential for cloud computing from a mobile perspective, said spokesman Michael Kirkland. “We’re kind of taking our first steps on mobile,” he said. “It hasn’t been a big story.” But at a basic level, the expectation is people will want to access the cloud with a variety of devices, whether that be laptops or phones.
SYNC IT UP
Funambol does something similar to MobileMe, allowing end-users to sync contacts and calendar information. Except in Funambol’s case, “we do it for 1.5 billion phones, not just the iPhone,” said Hal Steger, vice president of marketing. “People expect everything to stay in sync. You need this automatic syncing capability.
Funambol uses the Amazon cloud to store contacts and calendar data; it does not store e-mail in the cloud, Steger said. But he also points out that consumers still need native applications on the phone. That’s in part because even with everything in the cloud, there are times when people are not able to connect to the Internet, such as when they’re on an airplane or the phone can’t get a signal. “The user still wants to access that information even if the phone can’t get Internet connectivity,” he said.
For some applications, like mobile video, consumers are better off downloading it and storing it on their phone. From a usability point of view, it makes sense to have an application working on the phone and visit the cloud for new information. That said, “I think cloud computing can benefit a lot of business users as well,” he said. “What’s happening is more and more companies are going to be putting their applications on the cloud.”
SIGN IT, SEND IT
Back in 2005, EchoSign, an electronic signature service provider, didn’t call it cloud computing. Then, it was Web 2.0. Nowadays, however, “we call it the cloud,” explained CEO Jason Lemkin. Its customers are generating sales leads in the cloud, and they want to close their deals in the cloud, he said.
EchoSign’s proposition allows companies to cut the amount of time between a prospective sale and a signed contract. Its customers include Alltel Wireless, Qualcomm and British Telecom – companies that do high volumes of contracts every month.
Lemkin defines the cloud as services provided entirely over the Internet, so no local software is needed. About 6% of its contracts are closed on a smartphone, which makes sense because so many customers are on the go and not sitting in front of a PC all day.
Security is important, and information stored in the cloud is safer than sitting on a laptop, which can get stolen. But the biggest perceived, if not actual, risk for the cloud is reliability, Lemkin said.
Zoho evangelist Raju Vegesna agrees that reliability is important, but said response times are what really matter. Zoho, which operates its own cloud, monitors response times and shows the status of all Zoho services, so people can see how often or long it’s down.
Vegesna expects mobile phones increasingly will access the cloud. Zoho, which offers about 20 different apps, is talking with wireless service providers, primarily in Europe and Asia, about adding its cloud services and applications to their portfolios. The operators possess the reach, and they can offer Zoho’s applications under their own brands.
“The wireless industry is moving at an interesting pace,” he said, adding that many vendors are looking to test new offerings based on cloud services. “That is going to play an important role going forward,” especially as mobile phones are the primary computing device and means for accessing the Internet in some regions of the world, like India.
THE STORM EFFECT
Cloud computing could play an even bigger role for wireless if it’s pursued as a means of voting in public elections. Elections represent unusual events that would create what David Aviv, vice president of Advanced Services at Radware, describes as a “storm” effect that requires more resources on the part of operators. Operators usually design for average usage models rather than events that require a sudden onslaught of activity, so they might want to tap on-demand resources, including from their peers, for events like voting in elections. Right now, the bottleneck usually is in radio resources and not computing resources, he added.
But it’s early days, he said. As the industry moves away from the walled garden and toward a 4G environment like WiMAX and LTE, the role of cloud computing may change. “I would say that cloud computing probably will play a role in the next generation,” he said, and that may involve new business relationships between operators and content providers.
As time goes on, mobile phones will become more difficult to differentiate, so the phone makers, portals, search engine companies and even carriers will have their own clouds, Steger said. “All the other mobile operators and service providers will have to play this game because if they don’t, they’ll be left behind,” he said.