Internet is poised to be available in every single electronic device before the end 2050 (let assume – it might be earlier than that too). As you might observe, we are currently seeing mostly IP addresses that are of the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (32 bits long), and this will soon max out, i.e. we are have almost exploited 2^32 different unique web addresses. With all this in place, you see your mobile phone which is connected to the internet (usually if it’s a Smart Phone), and the number of smart phones in usage is expected to grow over 200% over the next couple of years, and when so many number of smart phone are used, each will need its IP address where we might definitely exploit the remaining few IPv4 Addresses. Will that break the Internet? No. Possibly not, because IPv6 (next gen) is ready and I believe a lot more companies have started to develop their devices IPv6 compatible, even if some hardware is currently not compatible, its firmware (software embedded within the hardware) can be flashed with the new version which is IPv6 compatible and continue to survive the upbeat around IPv6 era. So this will form a platform for expansion of cloud further, and will the users get to experience this transition? May be! But, with the way technology has aligned itself in a way to make it transparent for users. So you might suddenly see that your IP address has a 128 bit long address (can accommodate 2^128 unique addresses) instead of the usual 32 bit. Now this should and will form the infrastructure to support the expansion of cloud further and beyond limits of imagination. For example, you might have an IP address for every electrical / electronic device (wired or wireless) , at home or mobile, and owner of the device might be able to access it from anywhere to pass or retrive information. The device basically should have a cache, but real data that the device processes might be in the cloud.
I remember my Professor for Network Engineering who is working for BAE gave us some freezing ideas on the way future will be engineered with identification and tracking of every single object (including humans) that’s moving around in any place as big as a city like New York, by using a unique IP for each object. But that’s way too far, since the level of infrastructure needed to make it perfect is far beyond what we can setup in next 5 decades.
Having said that the platform to accommodate expansion of cloud being ready, we can now dive into and see the possibilities of what could be observed as a future in this cloud. In clear sense, One should be able to access any device/data (that they have privilege to access) from any where they want to. A few stones need to be turned before that’s reached. Accessing any device / data is not just the requirement, but a need that has to be met. Let’s assume you want to print a document, and this should be done in such a way that you have access to the document from any device of your choice, and you should be able to send it to a printer of your choice, where ever you are. In other words, document / data should not be in a closed box, but in the cloud for you to access from anywhere. I still see my friends who are reluctant to upload their data to a different place / server. If you observe the transition from Mainframe to Client-server, it was lead by Large Businesses at first and later followed by Small Businesses, and then it was further utilized by end users. With the cloud computing we are talking about a transition from Client-server to Cloud. Large and Small Businesses are reluctant to switch to Cloud based infrastructure for their businesses, primarily because of Security concerns etc. of leaving their data exposed to open world, and it has lead to creation of a subset of cloud called Private Cloud. This in reality does not serve the purpose. I see that, with unprecedented growth of Social Network in today’s world, we can observe that end users, are ready to export their data (to certain extent) to the cloud, and cloud based services appear to grow without much hindrance around user centric data. Also I do see that certain providers have begun to master the reliability and safety of such data. In other words, the real Client-server to Cloud transition appears to best work in a reverse adaptation process of that which was followed for Mainframe to Client-server. When the technology is matured enough to satisfy end users on cloud based applications, it should be safe enough for Small and Large Businesses to convert their Private Cloud to real Cloud based infrastructure. Though we talk and hear about cloud computing to greater extent these days, a complete implementation will be a real challenge.
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