8th April 2011
Guest writer Henrik Larsson provides us with the latest from iSpaces, an Irish start-up cloud computing company on the verge of releasing one of the world's first cloud-based computers, and in the process, attempt to tap into an ever-growing audience of “cloudies” who use a proliferation of web-based apps and tools, to work, chat, shop and bank online, and on the move.
iSpaces is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) that allows its users to access multiple desktops (called Spaces) in the cloud, from any computer and for free. The desktops can be arranged according to the users' preferences, allowing them to organise their various web applications and online documents to suit their needs.
The computer working session is fully executed and saved in the cloud, and iSpaces saves the state of the user's interface to the cloud thanks to its innovative technologies, CloudBrowser™ and NonStopWeb™.
CloudBrowser™ is a 'browser within a browser' which allows users to log into their iSpaces environment from any computer and access all their favourite media sites, like YouTube, Hulu, Flickr, Jango and Last.fm, as well as storage sites, like Google Docs and Box.net. Most notably, CloudBrowser™ saves all browsing sessions and history to the cloud so that you can easily pick up where you left off, on another computer.
NonStopWeb™ provides web persistence technology which remembers all open browser windows and tabs, enabling a user to access his last stored session and get straight to work, or play, without needing to reopen windows, web applications, browser tabs or online documents.
iSpaces was founded in 2009 by Irishman Dermot Doherty, with the aim of creating a technology that made digital life both easily accessible and persistent. Doherty says that the motivation behind starting the company was his “increasing frustration at wasting time logging in and out of multiple web-based applications,” and his wish to have access to all his open tabs and web-based applications from any location.
“iSpaces is designed for everyone who wants to simplify their digital life,” he comments.
Doherty is no stranger to web technology, having worked as a software architect and engineer, and taught advanced web applications at University of California, Berkeley. He is also the founder of Irish Dictionary Online, which has become the most popular source for Irish-English translations on the Internet.
According to Doherty, however, ”iSpaces is a whole new breed of technology, it’s part computer, part OS, part desktop and part browser.”
Getting started with iSpaces is simple – new users just have to create an account with the company at iSpaces.com. There is no installation required except for the first time you log into the website, when some software engines are downloaded onto your computer. The next time you log in from the same machine, entrance to iSpaces is almost immediate.
As well as providing the user with the unique `browser in a browser` and web persistence technologies, iSpaces also supplies the usual services associated with a good, cloud-based data storage provider: users can define their own privacy settings and iSpaces furnishes each user with their own separate file space and database, as well as secure and encrypted data storage (at data centers in Silicon Valley). The data is also regularly backed up and replicated.
iSpaces does have its limitations. It is currently optimized to work on Windows or Linux computers with Google Chrome, but support for the Mac and multiple browsers (Firefox and Internet Explorer) is planned in the near future, as is support for mobile devices, all of which will help to widen iSpaces' appeal.
As access to iSpaces is free, the company have set a soft data limit of 1GB per account, which is a small amount of space these days. However, 1GB is enough to satisfy any casual computer user, and this innovative and free software is bound to be tempting to more advanced users who will want to try it out and see what iSpaces can do for them.
Henrik Larsson is an analyst of the cloud computing market and Director of 'Emoinstaller', a Facebook emoticon project. Emoinstaller allows you to use more Facebook chat emoticons in your IMs. Emoinstaller provides 900 + high quality Facebook emoticons.
Tags: virtualization | platform as a service
