Getting from here to there

Cloud computing is much like the early days of microcomputers. Not the early days of PCs (1981 to 1984) but the early days of microcomputers (1976 to 1980).

In the pre-PC era, there was no one vendor of hardware and software, and there was no one standard format for exchangeable media (also know as "floppy disks"). The de facto standard for an operating system was CP/M, but Apple had DOS and Radio Shack had TRS-DOS, and the UCSD p-System was lurking in corners.

Even with CP/M as a standard across the multitude of hardware platforms (Imsai, Sol, North Star, Heathkit, etc.) the floppy disk formats varied. These floppy disks were true floppies, in either 8 inch or 5.25 inch forms, with differences in track density, track count, and even the number of sides. There were single-sided disks and double-sided disks. There were 48-tpi (tracks per inch) disks and 96-tpi disks. Tracks were records in single density, double density, quad density, and extended density.

Moving data from one computer to another was an art, not a science, and most definitely not easy. It was all too common to have data on one system and desire it on another computer. Truly, these early computers were islands of automation.

Yet the desire to move data won out. We used null modem cables, bulletin board systems, and specially-written software to read "foreign" disks. (The internet existed at the time, but not for the likes of us hobbyists.)

Over time, we replaced the null modem cables and bulletin board systems with real networks. Today, we think nothing of moving data. Indeed, the cell phone business is the business of moving data!

The situation of cloud computing is similar. Clouds can hold data and applications, but we're not in a position to move data from one cloud to another. Well, not easily. One can dump the MySQL database to a text file, FTP it to a new site, and then import it into a new MySQL database; this is the modern-day equivalent of the null modem cables of yore.

Data exchange (for PCs) grew over a period of twenty years, from the early microcomputers, to the first IBM PC, to the releases of Netware, Windows for Workgroups, IBM OS/2, Windows NT, and eventually Windows Server. The big advances came when large players arrived on the scene: first IBM with an open hardware platform that allowed for network cards, and later Novell and Microsoft with closed software platforms that established standards (or used existing ones).

I expect that data exchange for cloud apps will follow a similar track. Unfortunately, I also expect that it will take a similar period of time.