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Start-up Xcerion offers a peek at the clouds |
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Written by Daniel
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Friday, 14 March 2008 |
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Those who want a glimpse of cloud computing's future might want to check out the work of a little-known Swedish start-up. March 14, 2008 4:00 AM PDT
Start-up Xcerion offers a peek at the clouds
Posted by Ina Fried
Xcerion has a browser-based environment known as icloud that looks a whole lot like a Windows or Linux desktop. There are files, folders, icons, and applications, but the data lives inside the cloud. Although some bristle at the notion of a "cloud OS," because such products inevitably still require a Linux or Windows-based PC, Xcerion's icloud does put all the kinds of things you do in a desktop operating system, running inside a browser window.
That's not to say Xcerion wants to turn PCs into dumb clients. On the contrary. Although the data is synchronized to the cloud, its XML-based programs are downloaded to the PC and run natively, harnessing the power of the desktop as well as its ability to work offline.
It's the kind of thing I expect to see someday from Google, Microsoft, and others. But, for those who don't want for Eric Schmidt or Ray Ozzie to be fully ready with their contenders, Xcerion has brought some of that pie in the sky down to earth.
The company launched a developer beta of icloud in September and hopes to have a public beta by the end of this year.
In getting a demo of its product this week, I saw both good and bad. The good part is that it really shows what's possible in a browser even without Flash or ActiveX. Xcerion also shows off a few really neat features, including one that lets you associate the sides of your icloud window with another user on another PC. To share a document or application, you simply drag it off your screen and onto theirs. [C/Net News] [Comments] |
