Liquid computing: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:25, 30 September 2019

Latest revision as of 18:11, 26 August 2025

(10 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown)

Line 1:

{{About|the computing concept|the company|Liquid Computing}}

'''Liquid computing''' refers to a style of workflow interaction of applications and computing services across multiple devices, such as computers, smartphones, and tablets. The term was coined in July 2014 by [[InfoWorld]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gruman|first1=Galen|title=Welcome to the next tech revolution: Liquid computing|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/2608440/ios/article.html|website=http://www.infoworld.com|publisher=IDG|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Bridgwater|first1=Adrian|title=What is liquid computing?|url=http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/cwdn/2014/07/what-is-liquid-computing.html|website=http://www.computerweekly.com|publisher=TechTarget|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Definition of 'liquid computing'|url=https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/66841/liquid-computing|website=https://www.pcmag.com|publisher=Computer Language Co.|accessdate=20 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Rice|first1=Sam|title=Liquid Computing|url=http://www.applauseit.co.uk/blog/liquid-computing/|website=http://www.applauseit.co.uk|publisher=ApplauseIT|accessdate=20 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=James|first1=Howard|title=Liquid computing: The next big thing in IT?|url=http://www.marketsmagazine.net/liquid-computing-the-next-big-thing-in-it/|website=http://www.marketsmagazine.net|publisher=Markets Magazine|accessdate=20 February 2015|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.istoday/20150309130752/http://www.marketsmagazine.net/liquid-computing-the-next-big-thing-in-it/|archivedate=9 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Rege|first1=Ojas|title=Three Questions Enterprises Should Ask About iOS 8|url=https://www.mobileiron.com/en/smartwork-blog/three-questions-enterprises-should-ask-about-ios-8|website=https://www.mobileiron.com|publisher=MobileIron|accessdate=20 February 2015}}</ref> but the underlying concepts have long existed in [[computer science]], such as in the notions of [[pervasive computing]] and [[ubiquitous computing]]. The key differentiator for liquid computing over other related notions is that of being focused on the movement among devices of a workflow involving people.

In a liquid computing approach, a person might work on a task on one device, then go to another device that detects the task in progress at the first device and offer to take over that task. For example, you might begin composing an email on a smartphone and when you come near your computer, its mail software detects the in-progress email and lets you continue to work on it on the computer. The data involved, including its current state, flows from one device to another (more accurately, from an application on a device to an application on another device), thus the term "liquid computing."

An example of this approach is [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[Handoff (Continuity)]] service in [[iOS 8]] and [[OS X Yosemite]] (the feature is available only for compatible devices, such as iOS devices with a Lightning port and 2012-or-later Mac models that support [[Bluetooth Low Energy]] and [[Wi-Fi Direct]]).<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gruman|first1=Galen|title=Apple's Handoff: What works, and what doesn't|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/2691101/ios/apples-handoff-what-works-and-what-doesnt.html|website=http://www.infoworld.com|publisher=IDG|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=About Handoff|url=https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/Handoff/HandoffFundamentals/HandoffFundamentals.html|website=https://developer.apple.com|publisher=Apple|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref>

[[Google]] has announced a similar approach for applications in its [[Android Lollipop]] operating system and its [[Chrome OSChromeOS]] operating system to interact with each other in a manner similar to Handoff.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goode|first1=Lauren|title=Some Google Android Apps Will Run on Chromebooks|url=http://recode.net/2014/06/25/some-google-android-apps-will-run-on-chromebooks/|website=http://www.recode.net|publisher=Revere Digital}}</ref>

A limitation of current liquid computing implementations is that they are confined to specific vendors' platforms, such as within Apple's iOS and OS X pair or within Google's Android and Chrome OSChromeOS pair. That means workflows can't flow across different vendors' devices, such as from an Apple [[iPad]] to a Microsoft Windows [[Personal computer|PC]]. That is not a technical limitation of the liquid computing concept but a vendor decision to encourage adoption of its product ecosystem. Both Apple and Google, for example, make liquid computing capabilities available to developers through a set of [[API]]s that theoretically could be made available to competing platforms, but currently are not. To address this problem, the liquid computing concept can be applied to Web applications running across different Web-enabled devices.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mikkonen|first1=Tommi|last2=Systa|first2=Kari|last3=Pautasso|first3=Cesare|title=Towards Liquid Web Applications (ICWE2015)|url=http://design.inf.usi.ch/publications/2015/icwe/liquid-web-app/|website=http://liquid.inf.usi.ch/|date=2015 |publisher=Springer}}</ref>

[[Google]] has announced a similar approach for applications in its [[Android Lollipop]] operating system and its [[Chrome OS]] operating system to interact with each other in a manner similar to Handoff.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Goode|first1=Lauren|title=Some Google Android Apps Will Run on Chromebooks|url=http://recode.net/2014/06/25/some-google-android-apps-will-run-on-chromebooks/|website=http://www.recode.net|publisher=Revere Digital}}</ref>

== Liquidity as a Quality Attribute ==

A limitation of current liquid computing implementations is that they are confined to specific vendors' platforms, such as within Apple's iOS and OS X pair or within Google's Android and Chrome OS pair. That means workflows can't flow across different vendors' devices, such as from an Apple [[iPad]] to a Microsoft Windows [[Personal computer|PC]]. That is not a technical limitation of the liquid computing concept but a vendor decision to encourage adoption of its product ecosystem. Both Apple and Google, for example, make liquid computing capabilities available to developers through a set of [[API]]s that theoretically could be made available to competing platforms, but currently are not. To address this problem, the liquid computing concept can be applied to Web applications running across different Web-enabled devices.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Mikkonen|first1=Tommi|last2=Systa|first2=Kari|last3=Pautasso|first3=Cesare|title=Towards Liquid Web Applications (ICWE2015)|url=http://design.inf.usi.ch/publications/2015/icwe/liquid-web-app/|website=http://liquid.inf.usi.ch/|publisher=Springer}}</ref>

More in general, liquid software features flexible redeployment in response to changes to the software and to its execution environment.<ref>{{cite document|last1=Pautasso|first1=Cesare|title=A Brief History of Liquid Software (iEDGE)|date=July 2023 |pages=354–363 |publisher=IEEE |doi=10.1109/EDGE60047.2023.00058 }}</ref> As the software is updated, the new version is seamlessly redeployed, replacing the previous one without any user disruption. As the devices on which it runs change (as in the above user workflow scenario), the software smoothly follows the user attention focus from one device to the next. Overall, within the [[List of system quality attributes]], liquidity can be defined as the combination of deployability with flexibility.

== Related technologies ==

Several operating systems — Apple's iOS and OS X<ref>{{cite web|last1=Becker|first1=Hannah|title=How To Sync Apple iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks|url=http://www.technologyguide.com/feature/syncing-between-ios-7-and-os-x-mavericks/|website=http://www.technologyguide.com|publisher=TechTarget|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref> and Microsoft's [[Windows 8]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Sync settings between PCs with OneDrive|url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/sync-settings-pcs|website=http://www.microsoft.com|publisher=Microsoft|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref> — can sync settings across multiple devices, as can the [[Google Chrome]] browser and [[Apple Safari]] browser. The cross-device interaction concept is similar to liquid computing, but lacks the workflow characteristic of liquid computing.

Another related concept involves transferring a service from one device to another, such as sending a phone call or text message from a phone to a computer. Apple does not include this capability (available in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8) in its definition of Handoff, but instead assigns this feature to its set of services called Continuity,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Spencer|first1=Graham|title=OS X Yosemite & iOS 8 Continuity Explained: Handoff, Instant Hotspot, SMS & Phone Relay|url=http://www.macstories.net/tutorials/os-x-yosemite-ios-8-continuity-explained-handoff-instant-hotspot-sms-phone-relay/|website=http://www.macstories.com|date=16 October 2014 |publisher=MacStories|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref> which includes Handoff. [[BlackBerry]] has a similar capability called Blend available for its smartphones to send calls or texts to OS X Macs and Windows PCs. These transfer services are similar to phone or email forwarding in that the communications is forwarded to another available device (usually via a Wi-Fi connection), and there's no interaction with the data itself as there is in liquid computing. Also, liquid computing allows multiple handoffs during the workflow, whereas communications transfers do not.

Likewise, the [[Internet of things]] notion is similar to liquid computing in that it involves direct communication among devices for a computing-oriented purpose, such as analyzing a person's level of physical activity, tracking users in a shopping mall to determine coupon offers, or correlating traffic conditions and flow to recommend alternative routes. Data flows among devices or to a central application hosted on a back-end server, but at most only part of the workflow involves a person, not the entire chain of activity.

The various kinds of computer-to-computer interactions and human-computer interactions that include liquid computing are not exclusive to each other; the various type of interactions can be combined.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gruman|first1=Galen|title=The power of 2: Liquid computing plus the Internet of things|url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/2855211/internet-of-things/the-power-of-2-liquid-computing-plus-the-internet-of-things.html|website=http://www.infoworld.com|publisher=IDG|accessdate=15 February 2015}}</ref>

== References ==