Picture this: An office where you don’t have an allotted desktop. Or, a situation in which your laptop hard drive has crashed. But you are not worried. All the documents and information you need are stored and saved automatically as you work in the cyberworld, a mere click away.

PCs may still be there, but soon they may have less and less reason to exist as Google and a host of other web servers take on duties once delegated to the central processing unit (CPU). Ironically, this emerging architecture — comprising optical networks which facilitate computing over vast distances — is interlinked by the very technology that was supposed to be computing’s downfall: the Internet.

A few months back Google CEO Eric Schmidt embraced an emergent new model — cloud storming — which is founded on the premise that data services and architecture should be on servers and the application should run both on what is being called the cloud server and the user’s browser. “We call it cloud computing — it should be in a ‘cloud’ somewhere. If you have the right kind of browser or the right kind of access, it doesn’t matter whether you have a PC or a Mac or a mobile phone or a BlackBerry or what have you — you can get access to the cloud,” Schmidt had explained.

And now with the Internet cloud fast gathering on the horizon, the computer-on-a-silicon chip — predict techies — could soon morph into a computer-on-a-cyber planet with the network taking on the role of the personal computer. With that users could generate content and store all the data they need on the web — that includes photos and videos — work on it as they please, share it and also have it edited by others. As a result, companies with the fastest processors or best operating systems such as Microsoft will, in the near future, face stiff competition from companies with the best networks and best search-and-sort engines like Google. Come May 23, Google will combine its different web search services into one ‘Universal Search’ service.

To date, the battle has been between companies trying to win a monopoly over the microcosm of the silicon chip. But the new age of virtual computing is likely to be dominated by the masters of the remote data centre — those who optimally manage processing power, electricity, bandwidth, storage and location. That’s because they are in the process of using the Net not only to provide search mechanisms but also applications formerly housed on the desktop. In fact, in a bid to join the race in the clouds, rediff.com and yahoo.com have recently revamped their websites.

Navin Mittal, business head of fropper.com — a social networking site that has just introduced a concept called EZ blogs that enables you to write via clearly thought out templates — emphasises that this is where the future lies. “With the entire model being based on a central server which integrates and makes optimum use of the unused resources in individual computers, it surely is a viable alternative, although it may take a while to upstage the PC,” he says.

Subho Ray, president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, however, doesn’t quite agree that the PC or laptop will become redundant. “The issue of access will still remain,” he says, adding, “PCs or laptops as we know them may ‘disappear’ in the next five years or before, just like PCs and laptops as we knew them 10 years ago have disappeared now. But PCs, laptops or Mobile Access systems as a concept and as gadgets will certainly not disappear. They will probably change, adapt and in many cases morph. Just as we now have a palmtop or a mobile phone aggregating the functions of a laptop.”

At the moment it’s Google which seems to be marching well ahead of its competitors, having unveiled a package of communications and productivity software aimed at businesses which rely on Microsoft products for those functions. The package, called Google Apps, combines two sets of software bundles. One includes programs for e-mail, instant messaging, calendars and web page creation; the other, called Docs and Spreadsheets, includes programs to read and edit documents created with Microsoft Word and Excel, the mainstays of Microsoft Office.

Unlike Microsoft’s costly products, which reside on PCs and corporate networks, Google’s is delivered as services accessible over the Internet, with Google storing the data. With Google Docs and Spreadsheets, users can save and access documents and spreadsheets online.

“The advantage of online productivity tools is undoubtedly the simplicity it offers. Software in these models offers different possibilities in which companies need not spend time and energy in maintaining their infrastructure,” says a Google spokesperson.

While such online software packages may impact the use of the PC with its desktop applications, there are websites such as www.gotomypc.com which allow you to remotely access your PC from any other Internet-connected computer with almost any operating system through an apparently secure, private connection but for a price. All it requires is to log on to gotomypc.com from any Internet connection, click connect, and the PC desktop shows up. You could start working on the PC as if you were sitting in front of it — even if you were thousands of miles away.

All this may sound enticing, but a certain amount of scepticism remains. As Aashish Kumar, whose company Tekriti Software focuses on building web-based social software, points out: “There are two problems with online work — bandwidth and security (perceived and real). The bandwidth problem will go away pretty soon but the security issue is here to stay for quite some time. It’s extremely difficult to make websites nearly cent per cent secure. Even more difficult is to change people’s perception about the ‘web being not too safe’. Right now who would trust a site to store their most critical data?”

That’s probably why personal work or the business of computing, as Shubhra Biswas, technical head of a US-based systems and financial software development company, points out, “is still and will be the domain of personal computers and higher-end machines”.

Privacy is clearly an issue with most geeks. “I’d think twice before putting everything on the web. Having information on the PC helps maintain a degree of personal privacy. But all of this information that Google tracks about its users gives me the jitters,” says a software professional.

Google takes the concerns seriously. “Communication between the web browser and our server is always protected using robust encryption. Our data centres feature some of the strongest physical security measures available,” says the spokesperson.

But even if one were to get around security and privacy, another issue with online applications is their dependency on having an active Internet connection 24/7. “Unless Internet connectivity is as reliable and ubiquitous as electricity, online applications will never get the same penetration as desktop applications,” says the software professional.

In spite of the hassles, Generation Y seems hooked on to Internet-based applications. “It’s faster, easier and more convenient to have everything on the virtual plane,” says Rajiv Malhotra, a computer programmer.

And if one were to go by that, the web will soon win hands down over the desktop.