Apple iCloud – Cloud Computing for your Grandparents

The announcement this week of Apple’s “iCloud” service is an enormous step forward for cloud computing. To date “cloud” has been a marketing buzzword, a hassle for IT departments, a concern for legal departments and a major focus for investors. However, for the general public the topic has been of little interest and the majority of computer users have continued to use much the same technology as 5 years ago. With the news that Apple is rolling out an integrated suite of cloud services for iPhone and iPad users this situation has changed, with cloud computing entering the mainstream virtually overnight courtesy of a Steve Jobs’ keynote.

Apple’s iCloud announcement came in the same week as a Forrester research report looking at the market for personal cloud services. Forrester’s research focussed on the type of service which we have referred to as online productivity services: tools for creating and sharing documents; data backup services; task and project management tools etc. Forrester estimate that the worldwide personal cloud market will be worth $12 billion by 2016, while in a blog post they go on to say:

The personal computing experience has become a major pain in the neck, as people add smartphones and tablets to the growing number of PCs they use at work and at home – more than half the US online population, about 135 million people, have the challenge of managing their content across multiple PCs and smartphones.

Forrester believes that a new computing experience is emerging, based on the personal cloud concept, that will redefine the computing experience around a user’s personal and work information, so that it’s seamlessly accessible across all of an individual’s devices.

Although Apple were arguably falling behind Google and even Microsoft due to their lack of cloud services the introduction of iCloud has immediately changed the market. Frank Gillett of Forrester even suggests that Apple now lead Google on personal cloud services (prior to a single customer going live on iCloud!) and estimates that Apple’s innovation around cloud services is “on par with the most notable startups in the personal cloud space, such as Dropbox, Box.net, and Evernote”.

What is iCloud?

Apple have sold more than 200 million “iDevices” (iPhones and iPads) around the world, with many customers owning multiple devices. Indeed, arguably Apple’s greatest success is selling essentially the same product to the same customers and scheduling upgrades so that customers buy a new smartphone or tablet every few months. In this context a major point of frustration for Apple customers has been the difficulty of synchronizing data across multiple devices, for example to avoid having music stored on one device, photographs on another and documents randomly stored on multiple devices.

Up to now Apple’s only response to this problem was “MobileMe”, a rather lacklustre service which allowed users to sync contacts, calendars and email across Apple devices. MobileMe was clearly a second-class citizen when compared to, say, iTunes and was even described by Steve Jobs as “not our finest hour”. iCloud now replaces MobileMe and fulfils the original vision, forming the centre of a users digital life and automatically syncing data across iPhones, iPads, Apple PC’s and even Windows PC’s.

iCloud: the basics

The three main features of iCloud are Documents, Photo Stream and iTunes in the cloud.

The Photo Stream feature aims to ensure a users photographs are stored on each of their Apple devices. It will do this by syncing their 1,000 most recent photos from all devices to iCloud. Photographs will then be stored on Apple’s servers for 30 days or until the user has transferred them to all of their devices. After 30 days photographs will be removed from Photo Stream, however it seems likely that users will be able to opt for ongoing storage outside of Photo Stream.

iTunes will be altered as part of iCloud so that music is synced across multiple devices. Music will be stored within iCloud and pushed to each of a users devices automatically, so for example if a user downloads a song using their iPad that song will be wirelessly synced to their iPhone as well as delivered to any Apple or Windows PC’s which are using iCloud.

iCloud data sync & backup

The third main feature of iCloud is the most important in terms of digital evidence: iCloud Documents. This feature will automatically sync documents between devices and to the iCloud file store, so for example if a document is created on an iPad it will be synced to the users iPhone and PC. Apple will provide an interface to access iCloud files when on a PC without iCloud and third-party applications will also be permitted to store documents to iCloud. Based on information to date it appears these features will be enabled by default, without the user opting in explicitly. For example Apple have said that when the user creates a document using iWorks or a similar application, the document will be automatically synced to iCloud and will then be pushed out to all the other devices associated with that Apple account.

In addition to syncing documents iCloud will include a data backup feature similar to CrashPlan or Mozy which will back up the contents of each “iDevice” to iCloud once per day. If the user later switches to an equivalent iDevice their content will be automatically downloaded. iCloud also retains the basic functionality of MobileMe, meaning email, contacts and calendar entries will be synced between devices and stored within iCloud.

iCloud: cloud computing for your grandparents

In Apple’s promotional material for iCloud two words are repeated constantly: automatic and free. Apple is positioning iCloud as an integrated suite of services whose users will not need to configure individual elements or select files to sync or ignore. Instead Apple will automatically sync their data, back it up and provide access online. Apple’s second differentiator is cost: unlike competing services, or their own MobileMe offering, iCloud will be free. Users can optionally upgrade their account to provide greater storage, beyond the 5GB provided for free, and Apple may offer additional premium features over time but the core service will be provided at no cost to all iDevice users, beginning this autumn.

Like the iPod and iPhone there is little in iCloud which is revolutionary, indeed a savvy Apple user could already gain all of the benefits today by signing up for multiple third-party services, for example CrashPlan, Box.net and Google Docs. However, just as the iPod and iPhone brought MP3 players and smartphones into the average home, iCloud will introduce personal cloud services to users who have never considered personal cloud or online productivity services.

While introducing iCloud this week Apple also announced that over 200 million iOS devices have been sold worldwide. With an enormous user base like this, which includes many millions of business users and corporate devices, the rollout of an automatic new feature such as iCloud is bound to be disruptive. Industry analyst Giles Cottle of Informa summarised the potential:

It was always going to take someone like Apple to really educate mass market consumers about the value of cloud-based services … iCloud’s integration with those 200 million devices virtually assures the success of the service; it would have to be a turkey of Ping-sized proportions to fail.

iCloud and digital evidence

Although iCloud is being positioned as a consumer service it will be provided to all users of iPhones or iPads, including company-issued devices and personally-owned devices used for business. It is likely in fact that the users who most feel the pain of data sync issues are those using multiple devices for business: e.g., a personal iPhone, personal iPad and company-issued laptop. All of these devices can now be synced to iCloud and in fact will automatically sync once the user has signed into their Apple account. Business related documents will be found on all of these devices and it is going to be very difficult for organisations to control use of iCloud.

As an indicator of the number of iPad users who store business documents on their device, consider the number of articles on the web with titles like “the top 10 iPad apps for lawyers”, “the 5 iPad apps every attorney needs” or “the best iPad apps for legal professionals”. Looking back at the launch of the original iPad one of the most frequently asked questions online was “how do I get my business docs onto my iPad” and a look around any commercial flight will make it clear how many business travellers now rely on iPads for business. In the very near future iCloud will contain the data created or transferred using these applications, meaning for example that a business document transferred to a company-owned device will potentially be synced to personal devices if the same Apple account is used.

At Cernam we have discussed numerous times the problems emerging in e-discovery due to user-led adoption of services such as Dropbox, Box.net, Google Docs, Huddle, etc. Apple’s “one cloud to rule them all” makes the risks around these services pale in comparison. iCloud will incorporate the features of those services – and more – into one product that “all just works” and, more worryingly, iCloud will apparently be turned on by default! As Steve Jobs noted in his WWDC keynote speech:

Today it is a real hassle and very frustrating to keep all your information and content up-to-date across all your devices… iCloud keeps your important information and content up to date across all your devices. All of this happens automatically and wirelessly, and because it’s integrated into our apps you don’t even need to think about it -- it all just works.

One new concern which arises with iCloud is the dependence on the Apple ID system, the single account which will now be used for access to iCloud and other Apple services. In the past some users may have casually shared their Apple ID password, for example to allow a family member access their music, with little concern for security since the password did not unlock sensitive information. With iCloud the sensitivity of these Apple credentials increases enormously and will become one of the most sensitive credentials for a typical user, perhaps alongside their Google account. Organizations will need to consider their policies on the use of personal Apple accounts on official devices or for business purposes and may need to educate staff on the importance of keeping Apple accounts secure.

The beginning of the end for the desktop computer

The long-term impact of iCloud may not be increased cloud adoption, a better user experience or increased sales of Apple products. It may be a change in mindset for Apple users who will no longer see iPhones and iPads as secondary devices, containing a subset of their data and being useful only for certain tasks. iCloud may allow users to fully rely on their model devices as a first-class device rather than as something to be used only when away from a PC.

For those of us concerned with digital evidence this may have positive and negative repercussions. On the positive side it may now be sufficient to examine a single device with iCloud enabled, or at least to de-duplicate far more aggressively across multiple synchronized devices. On the other hand we can expect wildfire adoption of iCloud within companies and even government agencies which will introduce new issues around problem leavers, theft of data and business records on personal devices.

Fundamentally iCloud will also mean that personal online data stores must be brought into scope when dealing with e-discovery and other data-intensive investigations, since business records will inevitably migrate to iCloud and over time the contents of devices may become less significant. We look forward to the challenge!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also be interested in our ongoing series on the evidential implications of Facebook’s new messaging system.