A recent article looks at the growing importance of cloud computing: “One of the problems with ‘cloud computing’ is that it can work a bit like the Hotel California: you can check your data in OK, but will you ever get it out? Google is very well aware of the problem and with its Data Liberation commitment, wants to make sure people can retrieve their data. Ideally, of course, users should be able to move stuff from one cloud to another — from Google to Amazon or Microsoft or any similar service — but that’s not possible at the moment.”

The article continues, “Vint Cerf, often known as the Father of the Internet, raised this point in an impressively coherent answer to a question at a Churchill Club meeting at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) last month, recorded by Fora.tv. Cerf says it’s the same as the problem networks faced when they couldn’t talk to one another: ‘We’re at the same point now in 2010 as we were in ’73 with internet.’ Cerf says we now need protocols and standards that will “allow people to manage assets in multiple clouds, and for clouds to interact with each other,” and that mobiles could be part of that.”

It goes on, “It took five years to develop the internet protocols (and another five years to implement them for various operating systems), says Cerf. ‘So if we could rely on that as an indicator, maybe the intercloud problem could be solved in five years’ time.’”

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