In one of my previous posts I wrote about office 2.0 and how it will have to face problem of privacy and owner’s control over sensitive business informations. Today I want to add last short bit to what I said then.

First of all it seems like the idea of “office 2.0 - PC no more” is getting more and more popular as top “big boys” as I call them, are all announcing their own version of effectively the same thing - online version of an office suite.

• Google announcing the launch of Presently, their Web-based Powerpoint clone. Interestingly enough, one would have expected presentation software to be the most obvious application to move to the Web first instead of the last.
• Yahoo! announcing the purchase of Zimbra, a developer of a Web-based office productivity and collaboration suite.
• Microsoft announcing the it would integrate Web-based storage and collaboration into it’s desktop office productivity suite.
• IBM announcing that it would ship it’s own branded version of an Open Source clone of Microsoft’s desktop productivity suite.

And thats all good news of course!

But the problem still exists, if I’m a business user, and I want to use those office suites then I need to feel I still have control over the data I’m editing. In other words I don’t want to use Google storage of Microsoft storage - I want to use “my harddrive” - my own storage.

But what is “my harddrive” in the age of Internet? I guess its not longer the real harddrive on my computer (although it could be of course - if I’d be really paranoid). Instead I bet that the “new harddrive” of the future will be grid-based storage systems like Amazon S3, Google File System or Parascale

What we need to see in macro scale is those systems to get adapted for the needs of end-users, normal folks like you and me. Not just developers and web 2.0 startups. I want to have my own “space” (storage) in Internet, one that I know I control in 100% - but one that is there online, and which I can access from anywhere I like. And that storage is already our there in form of storage grid systems - all I need now, is somebody to make it available for “private users” like me.

Then step 2, would be providing some kind of API, a connection between those online office suits and online “private” storage systems. This way, using my “online text editor” I could choice WHERE I want to save my file - and I wouldn’t be forced to use Google File System - I could use anything I like incl. my good old “off-line” harddrive.

Of course such “storage solution for the masses” could be an excellent solution also for other online apps - as I believe the more stuff people will do online, and more and more they will need they own “private” storage out there - one that is not limited to any “corporate” system, but which is fundamentally their own.

Sounds like a business idea? Sure it is. I bet that one day “MyHardDrive.com” or however it will be called, will be one of only couple of online storage standards, and it will make a really good money. A REALLY good money.