The Big Promise of Cloud Computing

The startup Decho shows the potential of blending cloud computing with powerful mobile computing devices

By Steve Hamm

When Damian Zikakis' laptop computer was stolen last May, he figured that was the last he would see of it. A thief had broken into the Birmingham (Mich.) offices of his employer, Boyden Executive Search. Zikakis promptly bought a new computer. He had subscribed to an automated computer backup service called Mozy, and he reconnected via his new laptop. That's when the Mozy service, which costs $5 per month for individuals, really paid off.

Zikakis noticed that some photographs and other files that weren't his were being saved by the backup system. He realized they belonged to the person who now had his original laptop. Doing a little sleuthing, he examined the photos. A teenage boy had posted images of himself mugging for the camera like an urban gangsta. A woman, who turned out to be the boy's mother, had stored a document on the laptop that included her name, address, and cell-phone number. With a little help from the police, Zikakis recovered his computer. "I'm a very happy Mozy customer," he says.

The story of the recovered laptop demonstrates the power of Mozy to do more for subscribers than its designers ever imagined, yet it doesn't even begin to show the potential that the people running the service now believe they can accomplish. Mozy comes from Decho, an independent subsidiary of storage giant EMC (EMC) that was formed last month. Decho, which stands for digital echo, aims to help consumers and businesspeople store and coordinate all of the digital information, photos, and videos in the computing cloud that they now keep on their computers, handhelds, and smartphones. Decho is on the leading edge of an emerging market for information management services—which is expected to attract giants like Microsoft (MSFT) and Google (GOOG) as well as other upstarts. "Decho is right in the middle of the shift from device-centric to information-centric computing," says Harel Kodesh, Decho's chief executive.

Like a File System in the Sky

Kodesh, an Israeli whose appointment to the job was announced by EMC on Dec. 16, has extensive experience in the software and communications industries. He previously served as chief product officer for Amdocs (DOX), which provides billing software and services for telecom companies. Before that he had a series of executive positions at Microsoft, where he oversaw development of the company's Windows CE operating system for handheld devices. EMC hasn't revealed its long-term plans for Decho, but it organized the company to operate independently like its highly successful VMware subsidiary, which went public last year.

Charles Fitzgerald, Decho's vice-president for product management and a longtime Microsoft employee, suggests that Decho's services are like the Windows file system in the sky—only much better and easier to use. Now, many people use their Windows file folders to store documents and photos, but sometimes they have difficulty finding them again. Others don't even bother with filing documents in folders, relying on memory or the slow and awkward Windows search feature to help them locate things. Plus, now that people have their digital belongings scattered among devices and Web sites, the Windows file folder system doesn't do nearly enough for them. "The current thinking is bankrupt," Fitzgerald says. "The desktop file folder metaphor doesn't work anymore."