Comments on: Cloud computing and my small business

By: Maisa

Maisa — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:39:23 +0000

Hi Bob!
Great and simple way to show how final users can benefit from Cloud Computing in general.
Have you tried any Online Desktop model yet?
Let me know how that would work out for you!
Maisa

By: CTO Bob Gourley

CTO Bob Gourley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:17:18 +0000

Thanks much Jeffrey, I appreciate the comment. See you online.
Bob

By: Jeffrey

Jeffrey — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:14:35 +0000

Bob, great post illustrating cost-effective computing for small businesses.
Matt, thanks for the tip on JungleDisk. It's an awesome app that I didn't know about.

By: Matt D

Matt D — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:07:31 +0000

With cloud computing, redundancy is the key as well. For example, I also use Amazon S3 via JungleDisk to back up critical files. One feature I like about Drop.io is the ability to download the entire drop as one .zip archive, which makes that easy to back-up as well.
My monthly fee for Amazon S3 is $0.90. Less that $12.00 a year for back-up of all my critical documents.
Other tools you might look at include DropBox and JungleDisk.
I'd also like to see Reader folded into Google Apps, but even more importantly, I'd love to have the ability to tag articles from the mobile interface. I use tagging as part of my workflow and while I can star and add notes via the iPhone version, I can't tag anything and it drives me crazy.

By: CTO Bob Gourley

CTO Bob Gourley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:48:53 +0000

Preston,
That is always a point to consider. My assessment for my personal situation leads me to keep an extra copy of the most critically important stuff, but that is just because I am paranoid. Google's distributed secure architecture is pretty darn good, in my opinion.
Bob

By: PrestonW

PrestonW — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:08:37 +0000

Bob,
Interesting point about reducing risk by going to cloud. However, is there risk with so many eggs in the Google basket?
Preston

By: CTO Bob Gourley

CTO Bob Gourley — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:47:33 +0000

Matt- thanks for the comments. I like Adobe too, but my use has been dropping off lately. I'll check those other tools out.
Kirby- thanks and also thanks for the Re-tweet, I appreciate that. Good point about reader. I have been using iGoogle for that. That is good but takes time to configure to do what it needs to do.
Bob

By: Kirby

Kirby — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:36:44 +0000

Great post! I am using GrandCentral and other Google Aps (including email and calendar) for my new small biz, but have not moved files from Office into the cloud. Also haven't looked at the sites feature yet. One thing I wish Google would wrap into the Aps pack is a Reader – that is sorely missed!
(using Reader with my gmail now, but would be nice to be able to get a dedicated work version.)
Thanks for the ideas.

By: Matt D

Matt D — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:04:59 +0000

Bob,
Great post. I too have been leveraging cloud computing services. In addition to the Google tools, I'm using RingCentral which offers the same features as GrandCentral, but with integrated VOIP and additional feature sets. For the small annual cost, it is worth the price.
I'm also using services like Adobe ConnectNow for virtual meeting rooms, AIM web applet for integration with IM, Drop.io to allow folks to easily send me files, and experimental services like uStream.
I've put them all together on one page at http://www.itactic.com/collab.php for those that want to check it out.
Thanks for the tip on Google embedded forms. What a great feature that I was totally missing!