Everything you need to know about Jio Cloud PC

At the 45th annual general meeting of Reliance industries on Monday, the company offered a sneak peek into the the futuristic offerings of Jio Platforms, including the AirFiber Home Gateway and the Jio Cloud PC. The latter is a low cost alternative to the traditional PC, which is aimed at virtualising the computing at the cloud level without the consumer needing to invest in hardware and software upgrades.

The Jio Cloud PC is a compact device which looks very similar to the Jio set top box and comes with an RJ-45 port for ethernet and multiple USB ports for connecting the keyboard, mouse, web cam and any other accessory that the consumer may wish to, it has an HDMI port to connect the monitor or projector. The details about the internal hardware including the chipset and RAM were not revealed by Jio but we expect it to be basic since the cost of hardware needs to be kept pocket friendly and all the resource intensive processing will be done remotely in the cloud.

Apart from the one time hardware cost, all other expenses will be on a pay as you go model where a person would only need to pay for the services that he/she needs, ranging from the operating system to all softwares needed to perform the tasks that the person needs. This will also prevent software piracy. There would be no added expenses for upgrading of processor, RAM, Motherboard, hard disk, etc since these components will be handled by Jio on the server side and the person can select a plan based on the level of performance needed.

This will be a game-changer for every student, every gig-worker, every small business in our country. Be it a pharmacy or a doctor’s clinic, a grocer or a hotel, a consultant or a Chartered Accountant, everyone can get an affordable computer through Jio Cloud PC and JioAirFiber.

A Jio spokesperson said during the product demo at the AGM

The Cloud PC can also be used by large enterprises to set up captive non public 5G networks using the 5G spectrum that Jio would be dedicating for this purpose. The private 5G networks can then be used by these enterprises for controling robotics performng various logistical activities within a factory premises or to control drones which perform pesticide spraying activity in farmlands or teaching activity in smart schools or for robotic arms in remote surgeries in the healthcare sector.