Many people who are critical about the “cloud” as a platform point out that some things can just never reach the cloud. One frequent example is a video editor.

When we are talking about hundreds of gigabytes being modified, cut, edited, and put together, how can all of that possibly be done in the cloud? Just the data transfer alone would take years, right? Well, yes. For now, that is.

Mozilla has just launched Bespin, a web-based (“cloud”) code editor for HMTL, CSS, and JavaScript. It i in very early stages, so I don’t expect anyone to be using it full time in the next few weeks, but, in the long term, it looks promising. Who would have thought that code editing could be brought to the cloud? After all, most developers have highly specialized environments based on their own personal preferences.

The point is, if we attempt to limit the possibilities of the cloud based on the technical limitations of today, you confine yourself far too much.

Imagine trying to use Flickr in the days of dial-up. It would take hours to upload the high-resolution photos and view other people’s photos. It just wouldn’t work. Today, however, uploading even the biggest photos is no problem for most people. How can you say the same will not be true of HD video in 10 years?

Limiting ourselves to the possibilities of today’s web is a mistake. Given the rapid pace of technology, the cloud appliations that might be a joke today could be the killer app in 10 years.

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