Pew: Cloud computing will dominate by 2020

By 2020, cloud computing will likely just be know as "computing."

The results of a research study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project released today found that, by 2020,  most people expect to "access software applications online and share and access information through the use of remote server networks, rather than depending primarily on tools and information housed on their individual, personal computers."

As the report points out, we're already on that path. We socialize in the cloud, via Facebook and Twitter. We communicate in the cloud using services like Yahoo Mail and GMail. We shop in the cloud over Amazon or eBay. We listen to music in the cloud on Pandora, watch videos on cloud sites such as YouTube or Hulu, and we share our pictures in the cloud on Flickr.

Some of us are even using services like Google Docs, Scribd or DropBox to create, share or store documents in the cloud.

But we still have along way to go before we bid farewell to the desktop computing. And that transition will not happen overnight. From the report:

Some respondents observed that putting all or most of faith in remotely accessible tools and data puts a lot of trust in the humans and devices controlling the clouds and exercising gatekeeping functions over access to that data. They expressed concerns that cloud dominance by a small number of large firms may constrict the Internet’s openness and its capacity to inspire innovation – that people are giving up some degree of choice and control in exchange for streamlined simplicity. A number of people said cloud computing presents difficult security problems and further exposes private information to governments, corporations, thieves, opportunists, and human and machine error.