Personal Cloud Management Shines at DEMO 2011, Pushes Consumer Trends
The Demo Spring 2011 conference introduced us quite a bit of interesting new technologies (including educational mindreading headsets), but personal cloud management was a segment which got a particularly large amount of attention. The trend signifies ongoing industry development around the personal cloud, which is taking a path similar to enterprise cloud structures, as far as management, access and backup is concerned. As devices work their way through consumer markets, so too will personal cloud management, becoming a foundation for businesses to build services that address individualized needs. Scaling up and back down again, personal cloud management is all about vertical appeal.
DEMO featured several new personal cloud management products, starting with Manilla. The free online account manager was launched into beta today by Hearst. The cloud application enables users to access credit cards, cable and utility bills, travel rewards and various subscriptions in one webpage. Hearst is partnering up with Comcast and Citibank to support its new offering, and more partners will probably be added in the near future.
Alonngside Manilla, AirSet was also demonstrated at DEMO. The service lets users set-up a “cloud computer”, and the basic version which offers 1GB worth of storage is free. Users can increase their storage to 5GB and get added security for $2.95/month, and sync these cloud computers across various platforms, as well as with other users. AirSet also features collaboration, doc creation, integration, voice chat and so on, and represents one more notably interesting addition to the personal cloud management cloud.
Moving on to other aspects of this segment, the extremely simplified PhotoRocket photo-sharing application was unveiled. Featuring only minimalistic right-click “share with PhotoRocket button” option, the app/ad-on enables you to share photos via your mail, photo services, social networks etc on and across multiple platforms.
Last but not least, Primadesk also launched its free personal cloud management application into public beta at DEMO. Featuring single log-in access, account centralization and documents drag-and-drop and beyond, we discussed how Primadesk and other personal cloud services drive demand around real time big data analysis. Personal cloud services are popular ways to monetize data management, backup and delivery, and the consumer end is mimicking the very trends we see over in the enterprise space.
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