Windows 8 released recently as the Re-Creation of Windows was demonstrated at the BUILD conference in California only a few days ago. The operating system is extremely fast and seems to keep pace with other tablet or phone based operating systems such as the iOS. Cloud computing has been a big discussion for a long time, and yet we have not seen it as a reality, except with the Chromebook. Let’s have a look at how the new Windows 8 install will really take us to the world of cloud computing.

• Windows to Go. Windows to Go is the ability for you to place your whole operating system, applications and documents on a USB stick, and take it with you. This means you can be using a desktop or laptop in the office, and instead of taking that device home to do some extra work; you can load up your whole device onto a USB. When you get home, you boot up any device with your USB, and it is exactly where you left off at work – that is impressive.

• Client-Server. Client-server based computing is very popular, and has been the basis of much of the business computing in place today. We see the same type of applications, running from a single computer (server) becoming popular within Windows and Microsoft itself. Office365 is the same as Office we all know, but you are paying for access to the application on the internet, versus having the application on your computer. Microsoft has been very aware of the desire of business to continue to use client-server applications and they have continued to build their own. This means that companies can purchase multiple licenses and allow their workers to use these types of applications and manage what is stored on those servers.

• HTML5. The Windows 8 upgrade has a few radical features. HTML5 is the programming language of the internet. It is the language that Facebook is written in, for example. HTML5 used to only work inside your browser. With the Windows 8 download, HTML5 can now operate natively on your device. This means your HTML5 application works like any other application on your computer. This will mean that we will see many of our existing applications come out with a HTML5 version, that will work inside your browser, or on your Windows 8 based machine. This has many implications. For example, Microsoft can make applications that will run on your Windows 8 machine, or run on the browser of its competitors. Facebook is already making a new version of Facebook that will run independently on your Windows 8 based machine. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that we are not aware of.

Cloud computing has actually been with us for some time. Google, and other email providers have been giving us online cloud based computing for some time. Online banking is another example of cloud based computing. Windows 8 is only going to make that more popular and easier for programmers to develop new applications. The Re-Creation of Windows might actually be a re-creation of the way we think of personal computing.