Cloud Enabled vs Cloud Based

Many military applications are "Moving to the Cloud", but what does that mean? More often than not that means the application is in a web-browser and it reaches out to some cloud service for all aspects of the program. If done right it works just as good as the apps we use in daily life like Google Docs, but there have been some attempts in the past that don't.

But what does that mean to the operators down-range or on the move where good communications is a luxury and spotty comm is the norm. ISS saw this multiple times in OEF, when the network went down the analysts went to the gym.

The Q was designed to be stand-alone with cloud enabled reach back. It stores all the information locally on nano-cloud servers called Gadgets. These gadgets host Q-Trends and other infrastructure services so that if the base is on a deserted island in the great blue comm sea all the information from the local sensors continue to feed live data to the Q, giving the operators and commanders the information they need for base defense and operations.

So how do you gain cross base situational awareness without "Moving to the Cloud" and the drawbacks it brings. You extend the services you need to the cloud and while keeping the services you do need local. This minimizes the need for users bandwidth but still gives them the situational awareness of the nearby bases.

Most of us travel frequently and pay for the internet provided by the airlines so we can keep up with email while we travel. We all know though that the internet we get is slow and not always reliable. To demonstrate the benefit of Cloud-Enabled applications we recently used our new Q-Mobile device to show real-time data from sensors on the other side of the world while having full functionality of the software... all at 35,000 feet.