More BYOD management features for Android devices

More than ever, people are bringing their own mobile phones and tablets to work. This "bring your own device" (BYOD) trend appeals to companies that want their employees to be productive on the go, with devices they enjoy using. As an admin, your role in a BYOD environment is to make sure users keep their mobile devices secure. 

Comprehensive mobile device management is included with Google Apps for Business, Government and Education. Organizations large and small can manage smartphones and tablets - including Android and iOS - right from the Google Apps Admin console, with no need for special hardware or software. 

Additional Features

1. Selective wipe - Remove Google Apps account data without wiping a user’s entire device. 
2. SD card wipe - During a full device wipe, wipe SD cards in addition to the internal memory.
3. Device Policy app - Ensure that security policies are enforced across all devices by requiring the latest version of the Device Policy app. 
4. Wi-Fi configuration - Enter wi-fi settings in the Admin console once -- and they'll be automatically pushed out to all managed Android devices.

How Google handles SPAM

Google has one of the best spam blockers in the business, and it's integrated into Google Apps. Spam is purged every 30 days. We have built in virus checking, and we enforce checking of documents before allowing a user to download any message. Most computer viruses are contained in executable files, so standard virus detectors scan messages for executable files that appear to be viruses. Google helps block viruses in the most direct possible way: by not allowing users to receive executable files (such as files ending in .exe) that could contain damaging executable code; even if they are sent in a compressed (.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz) format.

Google supplies Chrome™ and Firefox® users with constantly updated filters against phishing and malware. By combining advanced algorithms with reports about misleading pages from a number of sources, Google downloads to your browser a list of information about sites that may engage in phishing or contain malicious software. Safe Browsing is often able to automatically warn you when you encounter a page that's trying to trick you into disclosing personal information.

Google provides pieces of the spam-protection puzzle, from distributed computing to language detection. For example, they use optical character recognition (OCR) to protect Google Apps users from image spam. And machine-learning algorithms developed to merge and rank large sets of Google search results allowing them to combine hundreds of factors to classify spam.

Why messages are marked as SPAM
Learn why a message ended up in your spam folder

There are three levels of Spam Filtering options available with Google Apps.

• Automated SPAM Protection - Google Apps has an automated system that helps detect spam by identifying viruses and suspicious messages, finding patterns across messages, and learning from what Gmail users like you commonly mark as spam. Google SPAM filters provides protection against Phishing scams, Message from unconfirmed Senders, Message you sent to Spam, similarity to suspicious message, message content is empty.
  
  

• Admin Level - Administrator can set policies for your domain users to mark email messages from particular sender, domain or IP address to consider it as SPAM. This policies could be imposed for predefined set of users or entire domain.
  
  

• User Level - Google Apps facilitates end user to allow any irrelevant messages to mark as SPAM. If you get an email in your inbox that is actually spam, you need to click the "Report Spam" to help Gmail to treat such messages as spam in the future.
  
  

A bridge to the cloud: Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office now available to early testers

 

Tens of millions of people have moved to Google Docs because it’s 100% web: it provides real-time collaboration in the browser, with no software to install, manage or upgrade. Of course, we know that many more of you still use Microsoft Office, because until recently, there weren’t many tools to help you collaborate and share with others. Now there’s more choice.

To help smooth the transition from Office to the cloud, my teammates and I founded a company called DocVerse, which was acquired by Google earlier this year. Over the last 9 months, we’ve been hard at work moving the DocVerse product to Google’s infrastructure. We’ve also renamed it Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office. Today, we’re pleased to take the next step towards a public launch and make it available to early testers.

For those of you who have not made the full move to Google Docs and are still using Microsoft Office, Google has something great to offer. With Cloud Connect, people can continue to use the familiar Office interface, while reaping many of the benefits of web-based collaboration that Google Docs users already enjoy.
Users of Office 2003, 2007 and 2010 can sync their Office documents to the Google cloud, without ever leaving Office. Once synced, documents are backed-up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs. And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version.



Once in the Google cloud, documents can be easily shared and even simultaneously edited by multiple people, from right within Office. A full revision history is kept as the files are edited, and users can revert to earlier versions in one click. These are all features that Google Docs users already enjoy today, and now we’re bringing them to Microsoft Office.

Nothing but the web

Nothing but the web

This year cloud computing went mainstream, and the conversations moved beyond "this is a way to cut costs" to "this is a better way to run my business." While many IT vendors have now adopted (or co-opted) the term “cloud computing” to describe a wide variety of technologies, most don’t deliver on the true promise of the cloud. Hosting single-tenant server products in a data center is not cloud computing. Nor is requiring customers to install thick client software. These solutions lock-in customers to multi-year release cycles, leave them with the significant costs of managing client software, and expose sensitive data on insecure devices. In 2011, we are committed to moving beyond the current notion of cloud computing to bring customers to a world we call 100% web.

100% web

In a 100% web world, business applications are delivered over the Internet and accessed in a web browser. The applications and the data are stored centrally and are designed to be served from a highly scalable, secure and reliable multi-tenant infrastructure. Devices like notebooks, tablets, and smartphones are portals to the data that help people be productive from anywhere, at any time. Upgrades aren’t necessary to get access to the latest innovation, just refresh the browser. Businesses no longer own or manage servers and client software: they purchase integrated applications and development platforms from others, and now devote their valuable time to business logic and features that create competitive advantage.

We are investing in a variety of technologies so that companies can be productive with nothing but the web:

• Google Apps is the world’s most popular suite of web-based communication and collaboration applications, and includes email, instant messaging, calendaring, documents, sites, video sharing, Postini services and dozens more. We will continue to improve and expand our offerings to bring more powerful technologies to our more than three million customers.
• Google App Engine lets companies build their own applications for internal or external use and host them on Google infrastructure. This allows for faster and easier development, virtually no ongoing maintenance, and the ability to easily scale to meet capacity needs at short notice. App Engine already sees more than 1 billion page views per day from more than 150,000 active applications, and we will be launching App Engine for Business more broadly in 2011.
• Google Apps Marketplace provides the other applications customers need to build their business on the web, integrated with Google Apps and installed in a few clicks. The marketplace will continue to grow beyond its 250 applications and make it easier for businesses to find, evaluate, and purchase the best non-Google applications on the web.
• Android is one of the fastest growing mobile platforms in the world and designed to drive innovation and choice. Companies can now manage Android, iPhone, Windows Mobile, and other ActiveSync devices right from the browser. And the Android team is hard at work on a new version of the platform that addresses the unique aspects of tablet form factors and use cases.
• Google Chrome is an open source web browser developed to provide users with a fast, simple, and secure web-browsing experience with modern web applications. Chrome has become 300% faster in just two years, and adoption has tripled over the last year. This week we announced new features for Chrome to make managing enterprise deployments easy. Also, companies using older versions of Internet Explorer for their legacy applications can use Google Chrome Frame to access modern web apps that rely on technologies like HTML5.
• Google Chrome OS is a new operating system designed from the ground up for 100% web. By building an operating system that is essentially a browser, we can make computers faster, much simpler and fundamentally more secure. Last Tuesday, we announced the Chrome notebook Pilot program (apply to pilot) and Chrome devices for business will be available for purchase in 2011.

While many companies are able to jump right to 100% web, we understand that other larger businesses have substantial investments in legacy technology. So we’re also investing in solutions that bridge existing technologies to the world of 100% web:

• Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office allows people to continue to use the familiar Office interface (including Office 2003, 2007, and 2010), while reaping many of the benefits of web-based collaboration that Google Docs users already enjoy. It will be available soon.
• Google Message Continuity is a very cost-effective form of disaster recovery that lets Microsoft Exchange customers leverage the reliability of Gmail to back up their servers.

100% web is a dramatic shift from how companies have traditionally purchased, deployed, and managed IT. But the more we talk with customers the more we realize that this is the change they’ve been waiting for. It is the ultimate extension of the cloud computing model, and it brings substantial benefits for companies that no other IT model can provide in terms of simplicity, cost, security, flexibility, and pace of innovation. If 2010 was the year of the cloud, 2011 looks to be the year of nothing but the web.

Automating business processes in Google Sites with Google Apps Scripts

Google Sites lets you create public or internal web sites, and today we’re enabling scripts to support multi-step workflows in sites.

For example, your company can create a site for employees to browse and register for training sessions and career development programs. On the page describing each training session or class, you could add a “Register Now” button, which would automatically add registrants to the class roster, add the details of the session to each participant's Google Calendar, and email users to confirm enrollment. All of these automated actions can be driven by a script embedded in the site.

Starting today, you can create, edit, and launch Google Apps Scripts from any Google Site, which allows you to automate business processes that involve multiple applications. As in the example above, an Apps Script function can automate tasks such as sending emails, scheduling calendar events, creating and updating site pages using data from other systems, and more.

You can build a script by clicking “More actions” > “Manage site” > “Apps Scripts.” Once you’ve added a script to your site, you can add links or buttons to trigger the script from any page. For tips to get started with scripts, visit the Google Apps Script site.

Shift Happens - Globalization; Information Age

10 Things I Know About... Cloud Computing

10. Definition

Cloud computing is using the Internet to perform tasks which would traditionally have been performed on a computer located within your office walls.

9. Cloud Solutions

Hosted e-mail, online backup and any software-as-a-service are examples of cloud computing.

8. The Benefits

By using cloud computing, your business may find reduced hardware maintenance costs, ease of sharing data and applications with remote users, and automated backup.

7. The Drawbacks

The largest drawback is that you are 100 percent reliant upon your Internet connection being available to work.

6. A Good Fit

Cloud computing may not be for every business. You need to look at how you use technology today and how you think your organization will evolve in the coming years to determine the best fit for your organization.

5. Safety First

Data stored in the cloud is as safe as any other transmission over the Internet. You should ensure that data is encrypted not only while traveling to and from your cloud solution, but also when being stored and backed up on the other end.

4. Fee Considerations

Most cloud-based solutions charge a monthly fee for application usage and data storage. There could be a trade-off for other types of fees you are paying today.

3. Local v. Cloud

You can keep some data local while moving some to the cloud. The key to using cloud computing well is to figure out which applications will provide the most value by moving them and which should be kept in-house.

2. Second Thoughts

There is a risk if you change your mind about what data should be stored in the cloud. Your migration costs could be significant and some cloud solutions require a long-term contract.

1. Privacy

Reputable providers will take steps to ensure the proper segmentation of your data. Be sure to ask this question before making a decision on a provider.

Virtualization & State of Cloud Computing

A survey of data center and IT management professional conducted by Zenoss, an Annapolis, Md.-based data center software and service provider reveals some surprising facts about virtualization and cloud computing. The results were collated from the responses of 204 individuals. Here are the the findings of the survey plus an info graphic outlining the State of the Cloud Computing:

79.3 percent of those surveyed used VMWare’s virtualization technology, while Citrix’s Xen was the second most popular virtualization technology with 32.7 percent of users. Oracle VirtualBox was third with 22.0 percent, and Linux Kernel-Based Virtual Machines (KVM) was fourth with 21.3 percent. Many used multiple hypervisors.

Nearly 65 percent say they use virtualization technology because of cost savings.

43.3 percent of participants use virtualization because of of the flexibility they get. About a third indicate hardware savings as a reason to use virtualization, and 40.7 percent said they preferred to deploy servers virtually.

The survey noted that nearly half of the respondents wanted to deploy hosted Linux servers in 2010, while 32.6 percent indicated interest in the Microsoft Windows servers.,

Amazon was the most popular cloud service, with 43.9 percent of respondents indicating interest its service. Google AppEngine got 28 percent, and about 22.7 percent indicated that they planned to use Microsoft Azure. Rackspace’s cloud offerings interested only 15.9 percent of the cloud offerings.

When asked what tools were they using to manage their cloud infrastructure, nearly 50.8 percent said none, while 33.3 percent said that they were using web-based tools from the hosting provider. New, specialized, cloud/virtualization tools had 9.8 percent of the total share.

Nearly 39.4 percent of the respondents said they were worried about security, while 26.5 percent said they were concerned about management. Monitoring got 19.4 percent of the responses, and availability had 16.7 percent.

Cloud Computing For Small Businesses - NASDAQ.com

Small businesses are increasingly starting to realise that Cloud Computing (also known as Software-as-a-Service or 'SaaS') is a useful tool for their organisation. This relatively new concept generally works on a subscription basis, rather than requiring you to purchase an expensive new version every year like most of the major software companies would like you to do.

Possibly the greatest innovation of Cloud Computing is that it allows you to run the software application without having to install it on your computer. It runs directly from your web browser, regardless of whatever operating system you choose. This eliminates altogether the great pains we have all experienced of installing software from CDs for hours on end, only to find it still won't work!

Cloud Computing applications can be equally accessed by users of any operating system. Windows, Apple and Linux users with access to the Internet and a web browser such as Internet Explorer. Firefox or Safari will be able to use the software. This allows users to switch their operating system with ease and not worry about compatibility issues.

Because the software provider has control over which version of the application you have access to, you will have the latest update every time that you log in. This eliminates the need to worry about manually updating the software or fear that it will become obsolete and unsupported by the provider. The developers are able to update within a few hours if critical errors are discovered, usually without any disruption to your access to the application.

The data you enter into a Cloud Computing application is stored on the highly secure servers of the provider rather than one your desktop. This is highly advantageous to users, because it provides greater security and also allows them to access it regardless of their current location in the world.

Read more: http://community.nasdaq.com/news/2010-09/cloud-computing-for-small-businesses.aspx?storyid=37628##ixzz10SMIacvu

Cloud Computing Infograph: What is it and Why should i care?

India's cloud computing market to be worth $1 bn in five years

The country's nascent cloud computing market, a platform where software applications and related resources can be shared online, is expected to touch USD 1 billion in the next five years, says a survey.

"India's cloud computing market will be around USD 1 billion over the next five years," consulting firm Zinnov Management Consulting said in a report.

Cloud computing, which is Internet-based, facilitates sharing of technological resources, software and digital information. The emerging field would function on a pay-per-use model, helping technology companies to bring down cost.

The cloud computing platform is expected to mainly benefit enterprise SMB (small and medium business), SOHO (small office, home office) and consumer segments.

A recent study, sponsored by IT infrastructure firm EMC, said that rising growth in the digital information space would create a significant market opportunity for both the cloud computing and storage.

Digital information includes data, text and media elements.

Going by EMC estimates, the storage market in India will be over USD 1 billion in the next five years.

Digital information in India will grow from 40,000 petabytes to 2.3 million petabytes (one petabyte equals 1,000 terabytes) over the next decade (2010 to 2020), twice as fast as the worldwide rate.

Recorded Future

The Future of Cloud Computing

Over the next 25 years, as technology advances and infrastructure increases, cloud computing will continue to change our world.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, about 70% of Americans will be using cloud-based applications as their primary tools by 2020—both at work and in their free time. It’s already happening, of course—people accessing cloud-based applications like email and social media from their smart phones, streaming movies from Netflix®, and hosting their family pictures online—but just imagine what is on the horizon.

The Internet is everywhere. Really.

The true potential of the cloud will only be realized with universal, high-speed, broadband Internet. We are getting there. Airlines are adding satellite based wi-fi to flights. Downtown areas across the country are wired with hotspots. But speed is the real roadblock.

Median access speeds in a few countries are as high as 50 Mbps (2-5 Mbps in the U.S.), but the cloud possibilities for healthcare, education, entertainment, and entrepreneurship will bring a demand for improved infrastructure. Over the next quarter century, deregulation and technology advances could bring 100+ Mbps service to almost everywhere that can receive a radio signal.

No more software updates.

Tired of chasing the latest version of Microsoft Word or Adobe Reader? Then maybe you’d welcome all software living on the Internet, on cloud-based servers. Whether you’re checking your email at work or adding to a spreadsheet in a taxi, the Google Docs trend will continue—software as a service (SaaS) will provide business applications and a repository of documents sitting far from our laptops. The IDC recently predicted that SaaS revenue will grow 5 times faster than traditional software such that soon, a third of all software will be delivered over the web. Imagine what things will be like in 25.

Hardware optional.

If most software is taken off the computer then surely data is also in the running. As cloud-based storage becomes the norm, people will no longer buy bigger and more robust hard drives to store all their videos, files, and music. Is buying a 1 terabyte external hard drive really the best way to protect your data? Probably not.

Eventually all data will live on the Internet—with full security and backups, of course. So, wait, what’s left of the PC or Mac if you take out the storage space and RAM for large software applications? It becomes simply an interface to interact with the cloud. So any screen, keyboard, or brain wave reader will suffice.

Games, baby!

And with the hardware gone, there is no limit to the entertainment possibilities. Upgrading expensive video cards, RAM, or even whole machines to play the latest games will be ancient history. Services like OnLive® have opened the door to this wonderland, and the next couple of decades will bring mobile 3D games and virtual reality to occupy the kiddies on long trips.

New medical treatments.

The promise of the cloud isn’t just about gaming and the ability to safely store all those photos that you wish you hadn’t ever taken. Many of the most promising cloud-based applications also require massive computational power. Searching a database of global DNA samples requires abundant, scalable processing power. Modeling protein folding is another example of how compute resources will be used.

Protein folding is linked to many diseases including Alzheimer’s and cancer, and analyzing the folding process can lead to new treatments and cures, but it requires enormous compute power. Projects like Folding@home are using distributed computing to tackle these modeling tasks. The cloud will offer a larger, faster, more scalable way to process data and thus benefit any heavy data manipulation task.

Is it going to be hot tomorrow?

Like protein folding modeling, climate simulation and forecasting requires a large amount of data storage and processing. Recently the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ) installed a climate calculating supercomputer that is capable of analyzing 60 petabytes of data (roughly 13 million DVD’s) at over 158 teraflops (trillion calculations per second).

In the next couple of decades, this level of computing power will be widely available and will exist on remote hardware. Sophisticated climate models combined with never before seen compute power will provide better predictions of climate change and more rapid early warning systems.

Education for the world.

A few years ago, MIT created a site called MITOpenCourseware to offer course lecture videos and notes online, free for everyone. It had great promise and hype, but it does not offer the texts or materials that are needed to truly learn a subject. The costs of education have skyrocketed, and recently, student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt in America. There is no need for the antiquated system of higher education to continue in the digital information age.

All of the materials and recorded lectures to get you from Freshman to PhD could easily be stored and accessed on the cloud for less than the cost of a single textbook. These resources will become more available and will make education an inexpensive global commodity. Want to learn to be a computer engineer? There will be a website for that.

Space, the final frontier.

Space is big. Really big. And the data that we collect about space is really big. According to Computerworld, once active, the Square Kilometre Array, a multinational radio telescope project, is expected to generate an exabyte of data every day, that’s more than the daily global Internet traffic, and we know how many times Justin Beiber videos get watched!

Cloud based resources will be the solution for such astronomical problems. Seeing the potential, NASA has recently launched Nebula, an open-source cloud computing project that provides instantly provisioned computing, storage, and network resources to NASA’s research community.

No more wallets! No more purses!

Mobile devices and the cloud have helped to replace many of the bits of paper that you used to carry around in your back pocket. Contacts and appointments don’t need to be kept in a stack of napkins and Post-it® notes. Your smart phone can access it all, along with pictures of the kids and your vacation. The cloud will complete the replacement of the wallet.

A company called CardStar™ already offers a service that stores customer loyalty discount cards for stores like CVS and Best Buy®, just have the cashier scan your iPhone. In the future, you will be able to pull up your credit/debit card, electronic business cards, and your driver’s license, all viewable and scannable from your mobile device. However, the makeup dispenser add-on may be another 25 years.

Read my lips: no more paper tickets.

We all know people who’ve disavowed paper, maybe even thrown out their laser printer. As airlines continue to allow iPhone bar code scans for boarding passes, and mobile ticketing becomes the norm, this trend will have us waxing nostalgic about when we used to get rock concert tickets in the mail. A paperless society will continue to evolve in the cloud beyond downloading books to your iPad™. With the help of apps like EchoSign™, electronic contracts, security documents, tax forms, everything will be stored and transacted in a secure cloud.

No more cart rage in the grocery store.

Does anyone like going to the grocery store to battle it out on a Sunday night? What if you could just drag-n-drop your groceries into your cart from virtual shelves on your iPad and then wait for the delivery? Some businesses have made Internet-based grocery shopping a reality, but it’s still in its infancy. Soon we will see delivery or pick-up services available locally as well as through the mail. Look out for a revolution in the way we buy food.

Where am I?

How will location services affect the future of the cloud and handheld technology? Foursquare™, a location based social networking site—just raised $20 million in venture capital. So location services must be hot! The site helps people explore their city by seeing what their friends are doing—and where exactly they are—at any moment. Location services will continue to evolve through the cloud, from tracking your children to helping emergency services find you in the event of an accident.

Digital media—movies, music, books, magazines.

The coming cloud will be fertile ground for independent artists and content entrepreneurs. The biggest current providers are rather restrictive and media access is often proprietary. As competition grows, an open market for global creativity will flourish.

The beginnings are happening now with companies like Jingle Punks, which has revolutionized the music licensing model. But established artists and catalogs of content will benefit too as larger and larger libraries become easily accessible. Soon, one fee will give you access to every movie, every song, every book, every magazine ever made, with new content added every minute. The days of getting DVDs in the mail or lining up at the Red Box seem numbered.

Saving lives with the cloud.

Okay, that sounds a little melodramatic. But medical records are fast coming onto the cloud. In the future our medical records will be secured in a single, digital repository that resides on the cloud. Say you need to see a doctor while on vacation in London, with a few clicks and authentication, everything from your X-rays to blood test results will appear. Home testing services, like 23andMe, already let you check for DNA predisposition to diseases. More such services are already here or rapidly on the way: blood analysis, paternity testing, and even remote diagnosis.

Criminals beware.

As we have seen, massive data storage and computing power are the promises of the cloud. This will not be a good thing for those who break the law. Before police even pull over a car, the license plate will be scanned. No matter what state the car is from, vehicle and owner details including driver’s license, insurance status, and complete criminal history will be displayed instantly. Records of all types will no longer be tied to specific agencies and local resources. Fingerprint and DNA records will be accessible globally, and search results will take minutes instead of days.

Where is all that oil going?

Researchers at the University of Texas are using a supercomputer to model in 3-D the movements of the recent Gulf oil spill. Cloud computing will expand the available resources for such projects. We will be able to respond to and recover from both man-made and natural disasters faster than ever before.

Search and Rescue.

As mentioned above, with the advances in location services, emergency teams will be able to locate you more easily if you get in trouble. But what if you are in the boonies or sailing around the world? There are currently emergency beacons that send a signal to satellites to alert authorities of your location, but if you don’t have one of these devices, imagery may save your life.

Satellite and aerial imagery can be analyzed by volunteers to find a plane crash or missing boat, but this analysis can be partially automated and will be speeded up with cloud resources. We will be able to find a 40 footer in the South Pacific in minutes or hours, not weeks.

I think I’ll start my own business.

The cloud can make anyone an entrepreneur, and it will. The cloud simplifies the IT problems of any startup, whether it be a new web app or a new real estate office, but it also brings entrepreneurship into the home or a teenager’s basement. If you have a skill, perhaps dog grooming, you can film it, and put it on YouTube™. If enough people view it, you may be offered a partnership and get a portion of the advertising revenue.

These opportunities will be endless. Whether you are an artist, blogger, or want to sell your knitted footies, you can market to the world. This will continue to grow, and it will help our economy and developing countries more than any stimulus package.

I wish I had turned off my AC.

The cloud will make smart grid technologies ubiquitous. Smart grid technologies allow two-way transmission for electricity delivery. With sensing and metering built in, it allows control (including remote shut-off) and tracking of appliances to cut costs and save energy. With the ability to respond more efficiently to supply and demand, the smart grid may allow us to have energy resources for 25 more years.

Speaking of grids . . .

Gridlock has become the norm in every urbanized area. Traffic and alternative transportation modeling is essential as we plan and improve our travel networks. We are headed for a major overhaul of our transportation systems. The current systems simply cannot support more vehicles. The cloud will be there to solve these problems. However, we should still be skeptical if the simulations suggest roundabouts for efficiency.

A viable standard of living for all.

Online peer-to-peer lending has been around for a while thanks to sites like Prosper®. But as technology and Internet access spreads, microfinance organizations will expand further internationally offering sound, secure financial services to all in the form of loans, savings, investments, and insurance. The cloud will be used to establish and track these services, and it will bring prosperity to the many.

Oh, and we will all be driving flying cars!

You simply can’t write about the future without throwing in flying cars. However, with the difficulty we have with roundabouts, it is unlikely we will ever have flying cars. But, on the bright side, the cars we have are going to get really cool. Cloud based apps are being developed that let fellow drivers share map routes, restaurant suggestions, and road hazard information. Or maybe you would like to calculate and share your fuel economy stats and compete with others.

These services will be available shortly, but the next quarter of a century will see the cloud providing movies for the kids to watch in the back seat, instant traffic reports, and it may even be driving the car for us.