Reg Research Cloud computing makes you so dependent on the network, and often even the public internet. So how can it be a sensible option?

If the comms slow down, the user experience takes a dive. Lose the link completely, and you’re stuffed.

We have been hearing such questions and objections from nay-sayers ever since commercial hosted application services have been available.

Many of us today rely on wide area comms and the internet for remote access and mobile computing, and that seems to work OK. So what is the difference with cloud computing?

The latest survey of Reg readers conducted by Freeform Dynamics gives us some pointers.

The needs and expectations of remote users have largely evolved around dodgy low-speed connections, and application architectures are often designed to handle intermittent periods of offline working.

An office worker relying on a pure browser based interface to a hosted SaaS (software-as-a-service) application is quite a different matter – the comms in that context become genuinely critical.

Download the report by Freeform’s charts-meister Andrew Buss if you want to read more about this, and also see what Reg Readers think of the performance and reliability of different types of network services and service providers.

Click here to get your copy. ®