Just saw this article on Webware about Prism, which is technology for extending applications beyond the browser. Yes, there are times when the cloud is just not available.
Very, very cool.
We already have Google Gears, of course, and Adobe AIR (on which some amazing apps are being built), and Microsoft’s Silverlight. And I’m sure there’s many I haven’t heard of yet …
The question is: are all of these frameworks for seamless online/offline development going to survive, or will one or two take the lion’s share of the market?
Whatever happens, these are good times to be a web developer, as with a little effort you’re now able to make your application run close to desktop-quality, even when there’s no internet connection.
Take a look at Infonic’s Geo-Replicator offline solutions for Microsoft SharePoint; Mobile workforces of groups like Christian Aid, PwC and RJ Reynolds, as well as the US Army and Marines are already using it en mass. We’re talking thousands of offline users.