Web browser is said to be the most user friendly and easy-to-use application.
The advent of Web 2.0 gave way to the era of browser-based computing. For the
past 2 years we have seen many online office suites involved and many other Web
apps, which take the regular office work online, providing users the advantage
of working from anywhere and anytime. Though most of the online office suites
are still in their beta and are not as feature rich as MS Office 2007 or other
commercialoffice suites, they have started to make an impact on the market. Some
of them like Google Docs and Microsoft Live offer customized solutions for
enterprises as a service. Thinkfree lets you host the office suite on your
server, which your users can access from anywhere in the world. It's not just
the office suites that are making impact, Web conferencing, online
collaboration, and project management have also gained momentum in the past
years.
Web OS
Though first Web OS came out way back in 1999, it was in this year that Web
OSes made their impact. Using Web OS, you needn't carry a laptop to access your
data. Also you can create community groups, which allow you to share files with
other community members. The concept of WebOS could also be used in DTH consoles
that come with built-in Web browsers and Internet access facilities. In such a
case, you need not buy a PC for home. You'll have your own OS hosted online,
which you can access using your TV as the monitor. WebOSes also provide
multimedia capabilities and hence allow you to play music, view and share
audio/video files; but for this you will need to upload your files to the Web OS
first, which can be time consuming. The downsides of Web OSes like the need of a
reliable Internet connection to work, and limitations like ability to install
hardware peripherals on them still remain. Another concern for Web OS users has
been security, especially for those who have critical data, which they would
like to access from anywhere. To solve the problem almost all Web OSes have
started providing end-to-end encryption through SSL.
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Nowadays Webtops are also available as a service, some Web OS vendors only
charge for extra storage space, such as DOD provides 1 GB of free storage space
and charges 2 pence per GB per week. Similarly YouOS is also available as a
service, and you can also host it on your own server with a fee of $2,000 per
year per server with a max of 50 users per server. Another company gOS is
selling PCs installed with customized Linux that runs only Google apps i.e.
Google docs and spreadsheets, Gtalk, calendar, etc. Off course you have to be
online all the time to use all these apps.
With Jumpcut you can create new videos online through the browser. You can also upload your videos and do editing as well as remixing of them |
Web-based applications for DR and BCP
As organizations are becoming increasingly concerned about immediate
restoration of data, in case of a disaster, the trend of using Web apps for DR
and BCP is fast catching up. From planning to execution, the whole BCP process
requires contribution from various departments. One such app is BCrevo, which
allows you to create BCP plans through templates and manage schedules and
documentation through a centralized console. In case of a disaster, BCrevo
command center acts as a central gateway, where all emergency response plans and
recovery processes are executed. The app also provides online training to the
new users, through the browser itself. In future we are more likely to see these
kinds of apps which can be in-house as well as outsourced.
A peek into future |
One of the things we are most likely to see in the near future is most Web Apps coming out of their beta versions. As they have been running in their beta for too long now, we are going to see more and more desktop apps becoming browser based. Adobe has already launched a service which lets you edit photographs online. Similarly video editing through browser will catch up. A company Jumpcut, recently acquired by Yahoo, provides basic video editing through browser, and there are many patents filed for browser-based video editing. In future we will also see more effective browser-based security apps like Firekeeper which is an IDS extension for Firefox. |
Accessing Web apps offline
To counter the problem that you have to be online to access Web apps,
vendors are coming up with offline access to Web apps. In offline mode all
required files of the app that you are using are stored locally in offline cache
or app cache. As of now it's not clear whether you will get all or some
functionalities of a Web app. Let's say if a Web OS starts providing offline
support, some of its functionalities like instant messaging can't be used in
offline mode. However for things like word processors, emails, etc, it can be
easily used. In these cases, while working, data is stored in local cache and
synchronized with the Web app residing on the server, required tasks like
sending emails which were created in offline mode are performed. All these
processes are transparent to the user, they neither have to manually download
anything, nor worry about uploading data created offline. Firefox has stated
that their next version Firefox 3.0 will provide support for accessing Web apps
online. Google recently introduced Google Gears which is an extension for
browsers, using which developers can create offline support for Web apps. Right
now its beta version is out which is developer-only release. But as soon as
Google Gears' first version is out we might see Google Web apps like Google docs
supporting offline mode. Popular collaboration software Zimbra, which was
recently acquired by Yahoo, has also released the Alpha version of Zimbra
Desktop, which lets you use Zimbra in offline mode.