Apple's iCloud may eventually prove to be a godsend for individuals
vexed by the challenge of synchronizing and accessing files across
multiple devices, but the limited information that Apple has
revealed about the service suggests it won't be business-friendly,
at least initially.
Introduced at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this
week, iCloud is a hosted storage service that works by pushing
copies of files stored on Apple's servers--music, ebooks,
documents, apps, photos, photos, contacts, calendar entries, and
email--to multiple devices registered to a single Apple ID. It is
slated for release this fall and is already being tested by
registered Apple developers.
iCloud currently works only with Apple's own applications, but the
company is providing iCloud Storage APIs to enable developers to
create third-party applications that take advantage of iCloud
storage and data distribution.
Businesses, particularly small companies reliant on iOS and Mac OS
X hardware, are likely to find iCloud an appealing way to simplify
file management and distribution. But larger organizations are
likely to find obstacles that prevent them from adopting iCloud, at
least until Apple or some other vendor using the Cloud APIs
addresses the following enterprise concerns.
No service level agreement
Apple isn't offering a service level agreement, or SLA, that
guarantees iCloud uptime or quality of service. This is a
deal-breaker for many organizations. CIOs aren't going to entrust
important data to a service that may or may not be available when
needed, particularly given the performance issues affecting
iCloud's predecessor, MobileMe, in 2008.
Lack of clarity about encryption
Until Apple provides further details about the quality and
availability of encryption in iCloud, iOS 5, and Mac OS X Lion,
businesses are going to be wary about allowing Apple to store and
sync their sensitive data. Revelations earlier this year that Apple
had been storing Wi-Fi hotspot data on users' iPhones without
encryption haven't exactly burnished the company's reputation for
security.
Storage limits
Apple is providing individuals with up to 5 GB of storage free; the
company has not disclosed how much additional storage will be
available or at what price. This is critical information both for
individuals and companies: iCloud loses a lot of its potential
value if it has limited room and can only accommodate a subset of
one's files. Bandwidth limits may also be an issue.
Manageability
Forrester analyst Frank Gillett, who recently penned a report about
the emergence of the personal cloud, believes that IT will have to
confront iCloud, due to the growing number of people using iPhones
and iPads in the workplace. In a phone interview, he described a
scenario in which an individual might access an emailed Word
document on an iPad. Doing so would open the document in the iPad
version Pages, Apple's word processing app, and would send a copy
into iCloud and back to the user's other compatible devices,
possibly in violation of corporate policy.
"IT is managing devices but iCloud transcends the device," Gillett
observed. Apple, he said, is setting up a potential conflict that
pits the individual and Apple against IT. "Putting IT in the
position of having to block iCloud is not a good position for Apple
to be in," he said.
However, given the work Apple has done to support policies and
enterprise standards like Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync on the
iPhone, Gillett expects the company will find a way to address
these issues. "We haven't heard everything yet from Apple about how
they're going to make this work," he said. "The company is going to
have to do something to make this palatable."
Aaron Levie, CEO of box.net, a content management, sharing, and
collaboration service, isn't so sure Apple will give companies what
they need to utilize iCloud. "We don't think this product will
change how Apple thinks about the enterprise," he said in a phone
interview "... Apple has no kind of track record of thinking about
its products in that respect."
Levie nonetheless sees Apple's iCloud as a positive development for
cloud service vendors. He expects that if Apple makes its service
as seamless as advertised, that will increase demand for enterprise
tools that offer competitive simplicity and ease of use.
As Levie sees it, the concern for businesses is not so much
synchronizing files across devices but providing the tools to share
documents and collaborate on them in a controlled way.
Gillett anticipates that consumer-oriented cloud vendors will be
able to provide that control through collaboration and sharing
mechanisms. He points to Evernote as an example.
Rather than making a distinction between personal and corporate
accounts, Gillett says, Evernote considers every account a personal
account and corporate control of documents is exercised by sharing.
Companies maintain accounts and share documents to individuals. To
remove access, the administrator of the company account merely
stops sharing the document with a specific individual.
In this way, consumer technology and corporate IT may yet make
peace. And iCloud or something like it, after a year or two of
refinement and additions, could find fans in large organizations.