{"id":3318,"date":"2012-05-30T14:04:45","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=3318"},"modified":"2012-05-30T14:04:45","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T14:04:45","slug":"jolicloud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2012\/05\/jolicloud\/","title":{"rendered":"France's Cloud Startups (series): A Closer Look at Jolicloud"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the first of a series, Trista Bridges takes a closer look at france’s cloud startups. \u00a0First up is an interview with the co-founder of Jolicloud, Tariq Krim<\/em>
\n\"\"Over the last few weeks we’ve discussed a couple initiatives sponsored by the french\u00a0government, namely\u00a0Androm\u00e8de<\/a> and another initiative led by SFR and Bull<\/a>, to develop cloud computing services. \u00a0While it’s encouraging that the government has\u00a0recognized\u00a0the massive opportunity cloud computing offers, it’s discouraging that they are relying on large, established companies to develop these solutions rather than engaging the various French startups that are already innovating in this space. \u00a0There are several reasons that explain this situation, but perhaps one factor is also the general lack of awareness around what’s already going on in France around cloud computing. \u00a0In the past, we’ve highlighted a couple french startups focusing on the cloud. \u00a0One we’ve profiled is Contract Live<\/a>, which is a cloud-based SaaS providing ‘contract management in the cloud’. \u00a0Given this is such a rapidly evolving space, we’d like to start to take a closer look at others. We’ll start this week with Jolicloud<\/a>,\u00a0Clever Cloud\u00a0next week, and others to follow.
\nJoliCloud – Disrupting the Personal Cloud<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a>Tariq Krim, co-founder of JoliCloud, is a big thinker with equally big ambitions (which we think is a\u00a0really<\/em> good\u00a0thing) although he thinks of himself first and foremost as an execution CEO. \u00a0In business school one learns about BHAGs – Big Hairy Audacious Goals. Tariq lives for BHAGs. \u00a0He’s always looking to anticipate trends and disrupt sectors through developing innovative products that transform how people manage their ‘digital lives’. \u00a0I caught up with Tariq recently to discuss what JoliCloud is up to, where they’re planning to take it and his general thoughts on how France is doing in the cloud space.
\nTell me about how JoliCloud started and how it’s<\/strong>\u00a0evolved.<\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nBack when I was developing NetVibes I came to the\u00a0realization\u00a0that the browser was capable of doing most of the work and, thus, my long-term vision was the ‘web as the platform’. \u00a0However, this was not how things evolved as Apple and Android went a different way. \u00a0Neither (nor other big firms) was actually faithful to the pure web as a platform vision. \u00a0We felt this was an opening and decided that we would develop a project that would endorse the web as a platform. \u00a0So, in developing the OS (Joli OS) our initial vision was that for the first time there was an \u00a0the opportunity to create an entire system on the web to do all<\/em> the casual task that one would normally do using (computer based) software. \u00a0My co-founder and I then developed a prototype (of the OS) and started testing it first on inexpensive netbooks (before launching it more broadly). \u00a0Ultimately, our first goal with the OS was for it to be inexpensive, simple, and easy to use.\u00a0\u00a0It has developed quite well as we now have 4 million downloads of Joli OS with users all over the world.
\nAfter this we started thinking bigger and said why not turn any computer in the world into a cloud device for free. \u00a0Up until that point we not only had Joli OS, but also had the Jolicloud platform. \u00a0For a long time we were only known as an OS, although the purpose of the OS was always to connect to a cloud platform. \u00a0The vision was very clear at the time that if everything was going to be online, people needed a way to access it. \u00a0We figured why not build the platform to allow everyone to be able to access the cloud. \u00a0As we started working on this idea, a big event came along in our industry and changed everything…the launch of the iPad. \u00a0People started to adopt tablets as their primary way to access content. \u00a0And, of course, with the iPhone getting better and better every year and Android catching up, the mobile essentially became a computer. \u00a0At this point we had a decision to make around whether we should allow only the users of our OS to benefit of our platform or if we should go after our bigger vision and enable people to access their personal cloud via all devices. \u00a0I must say that we struggled with this as our vision was always the web as a platform (ie HTML 5). \u00a0The success of the iPad, iPhone and Android, however, substantially delayed the vision of a pure web world. \u00a0We then had a moment of pragmatism. \u00a0We asked ourselves whether we wanted to do HTML 5, web model everywhere including mobile or whether we wanted to develop native products (ie apps for each device). \u00a0At some point we decided the platform we were developing was more valuable and that we would develop the best user experience we could on each device. \u00a0So we built and recently launched an iPhone app called Jolicloud Me and have developed an Android app which will be launching soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jolicloud Me provides a view of your life on the cloud on a daily basis by connecting to the various networks your are a part of. \u00a0The ‘Cloud Engine’ then scans these networks, finds all your data in these networks, and then turns it into a (single) timeline. \u00a0It then gives you the power to quickly search this data or create ‘collections’ organised by interest or other criteria (criteria can be customised).
\nWhat do you want to ultimate vision for Jolicloud?<\/strong>
\nRight now I’d say we\u2019re only 5% of where we ultimately want to be. \u00a0Our greater purpose is really is to open the cloud and make it available for people. \u00a0For example, over the last 7 or 8 years I’ve been using tons of services, so my digital life is scattered around multiple services, devices, etc. \u00a0So at the end of the day our digital life is broken. \u00a0The question is how do we give people the ability to access everything they own, everything that is related to them in an easy way. \u00a0So, we want to make the cloud easy and accessible. \u00a0We started by giving people a desktop and enabling them to access apps, but this isn’t enough. \u00a0The most important problem is how do access your data across various services. \u00a0Your online data\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0your life online. \u00a0 For us, the moment you give people access to this data in an easy way, you give people power…the power of access.\u00a0 \u00a0People think they have access, but to really have access you need to know where (the data) is, ‘how’ it is, ‘when’ it is etc. \u00a0This is the idea of helping to build and have full access to your personal cloud.
\nYou’ve spoken a lot about the power to access content. \u00a0What about enabling users to have more control over their content?<\/strong>
\nThis is very important, but first you need to know what content that you have online. \u00a0So, we now have our ‘Cloud Engine’ that trawls the web and allows you to instantly know what private and public content you have on the web (in certain apps for the moment) and gives you access. \u00a0The next step is to be able to, for example, delete content across the web and or make public content private. \u00a0For the moment, however, APIs across the web don’t allow us to do this so we have to send you back to the original content to manage it. \u00a0So, ultimately the services need to open up more to do this.
\nWhat are the specific things you’re looking to do with Jolicloud in the future?<\/strong>
\nWe’re still in the very early days. \u00a0We’ve now built this ‘Cloud Engine’ that provides a massive way of organising your data for you. \u00a0A lot of services you use have benefited from you putting all your data there, but there is no service that has been designed to allow you to benefit from having all this data. \u00a0Now we do photos, videos, music, links, etc, eventually we want to include other data such as bank statements, tv shows, books, etc. \u00a0Our focus first has been providing access to what’s easier to access and most closely related, however our vision isn’t limited. \u00a0There’s so many other services that we could include. \u00a0For example, business have come to us and said it would be amazing to compile all the information on their brands.
\nWe eventually want to\u00a0give people the ability to decide where they can store their data and manage their data (which can be monetized). So, for example offering\u00a0more functionality around people’s personal cloud, storage, backup, etc.\u00a0\u00a0I personally believe that advertising and monetizing around (users’) data is not likely to be a course that we will take. \u00a0I think people are looking for a different contract around how their data is treated. \u00a0However, we have to focus first on developing the product and getting users to value their\u00a0personal cloud.
\nWhat are your thoughts on Europe’s and France’s approach to the cloud and entrepreneurship?<\/strong>
\nI think Europe has a good understanding the next challenges of the cloud. \u00a0For example, most data, the digital lives of 450 million people, are stored on server farms that are under non-European (but US) law which is a very new thing. \u00a0This is a very big question for them. \u00a0In addition, at the moment, the US is going in a certain direction \u00a0(in terms of its development) because the US has a strong industry. \u00a0Europe doesn’t have industry leaders (in the space), but instead has companies ‘borrowing’ stuff. \u00a0Let’s take the example of Androm\u00e8de<\/a>. \u00a0The difference between companies like Orange or Thales (who are working on the project) and Jolicloud is that we build genuine and unique core technology, where as they are buying off-the-shelf technology. \u00a0They aren’t inventing the future. \u00a0They are buying the future that is being invented somewhere else. \u00a0That’s why I was raising a lot of doubts around whether we should be paying companies to buy technology from the US rather than investing in technology that is from Europe. \u00a0This is not to say that the US technology isn’t good, but we I think we should be spending our resources and time promoting our own technology. \u00a0I think thought there is a cloud ecosystem that’s being built as we speak in France, but maybe the problem is that we don’t make ourselves heard enough.
\nAlso, most politicians have a poor understand around the dynamics of startups. \u00a0One of the things I’ve said before is that startups and SMEs are totally different types of companies. \u00a0We need urgency, efficiency, and extra care in dealing with them. \u00a0The goal of an SME is to be a bigger company whereas the goal first and foremost of a startup is to survive. \u00a0They require very different solutions.
\n 
\nThe Jolicloud team are off to a solid start in terms of realising their vision and, ultimately, establishing Jolicloud as a leader in the personal cloud computing space. \u00a0Given Tariq’s proven experience in developing transformative products and services, he’s well suited to lead the charge. \u00a0We hope that Jolicloud and Tariq in particular will also play a active role in helping to put France’s growing cloud computing sector more prominently on the map.
\n 
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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