If you follow technology at all, you will have heard the term “Cloud Computing”. What is it? The “Cloud” is really a metaphor for the Servers you access via the Internet. What I find really interesting is how we are being pulled into The Cloud without even realizing it.
Since I am writing this on my iPad, (which by the way, is the coolest thing every created in Cupertino) I thought I would share a few places in The Cloud that I keep my stuff.
First, since I am not attached to a large organization, I do not have an Exchange Server. If your company has more than 25 employees, chances are that your main Cloud is your Exchange Server. My main Cloud is Google and Gmail. Between the Google Apps, and Gmail, Google covers about 75% of my Cloud needs.
I was put off when I got my iPad that it doesn’t have a file system. That means there are no folders for storing stuff. What am I going to do? Well, I have to keep my stuff in The Cloud! It’s a pain in the neck at first, BUT, once my stuff was all out there, my life became much easier.
Another Cloud I love is Evernote, www.evernote.com. You can go free or paid, and Evernote has software for almost every device around. But the iPad client is beautiful. I store .PDF documents, MS Office files, voice notes, and more. And I can access them from anywhere with anything. My favorite scanner, the Scansnap from Fujitsu, even scans directly into Evernote.
Apple “encourages” users to use their MobileMe Cloud. “Encourages” is another word for “Strong-arm” in Apple-speak. If MobileMe worked better, it would be no problem.
I have previously mentioned NetSuite in my “Outsource Everything” rant, but Netsuite is another stop in the Cloud. It’s great. Call me and I’ll tell you how one of my clients paid for 3-years use of the software in four months.
Finally, it’s amazing how things come full circle. When I was a young pup in the IT business, we made our money by getting people to abandon the mainframe and Service Bureaus for Data Processing, and moving all the computing and storage to PC’s. Now, I am using an iPad, with very little storage and less processing power than my laptop, and keeping all my stuff in The Cloud. It’s almost like accessing my very own mainframe!
Bye for now.
