A Quest For the Cloud

Recently, when my laptop started growling like a hungry bear, it became obvious that it was time for a new laptop.  Not only does this mean I have to research all the different available features, and compare prices from different vendors, I must transfer all my programs over to this new machine.  Unfortunately, many of the programs I used on the old computer with Windows XP, no longer work under Windows Vista.  This is so very frustrating.  Earlier this year, I wrote on the topic of Cloud Computing.  My New Year’s Resolution (which may carry into next year) is to find cloud-based or internet based alternatives for as much as possible. I am a bit of a computer geek anyway and over the years have developed quite a stash of tools for working on various types of projects.

• personal finance – Microsoft Money
• web page creation – Dreamweaver
• tax preparation software – TaxAct
• photo editing – PhotoImpact
• text editing – EditPad Lite
• office programs – OpenOffice
• desktop publishers – PrintMaster
• music slow down software – Transkriber
• password manager – AccessManager
• backups – local external hard drive

For personal finance, I found Buxfer.com to be the easiest.  It allows direct import of all Quicken and Microsoft money files as well as .csv formats if needed.  Using a cloud based solution lets me access my financial data anywhere.

For web page creation, free programs like Drupal and Joomla allow more than enough flexibility for most people.  My blog is created using WordPress which is more free software that allows me to write and post with no software requirement other than a web browser.

Tax preparation, desktop publishing and text editing are a challenge that I don’t know if I can overcome.

Office programs can be replaced by Google docs for simple items.  However, more complex documents simply need a full computer-based editor to work properly.  I imagine this is the next level of innovation coming soon.

My password manager was a big problem.  Whenever I travel, I either need to keep a 2nd copy of my passwords within that program, or be completely out of touch.  The solution is clipperz.com which is a free online password manager.  You can always download a read-only version of your data as a backup in case you have no internet access.

For backups, I use mozy.com.  While not free, it is cloud-based and stores your data (encrypted) offsite in case of a calamity.

Photos can be stored on Flickr.com, picasa.com, smugmug.com or shutterfly.com for free and allow you to share with whomever you choose.  Photos can be edited and fixed using Picnik.com.

The point of this post? If you can find ways to move applications into the cloud, you will find that you don’t need as much computer and it’s much easier to switch between them.  You even have access to your data wherever there is internet access.

Web-based or Computer-based?

Cloud computing is all the rage these days in many different industries.  What is it?  Essentially, it is moving applications and data off the local network or computer and storing it remotely on someone else’s server real estate.  Why is this a big deal?  There are competing schools of thought on this subject.  Truly it is not a new concept.  There has always been the in-house vs. out-source debate.  Cloud computing is just a fancy name for outsourcing.  When a company outsources a portion of their business, a certain level of control goes with it.  Is it safe to do this?

How about some examples?  In a post earlier this year, I gave a list of computer and web-based checkbook/budgeting software packages.  If you install locally, you have control over access to the programs.  However, if you are not at your computer, you have no way to know what is in the program.  If you used a web-based package, you could simply find a computer with internet access and log into your account to see how you are doing.  You can be at a friend’s house, at a conference, or at work and still access it. Someone else takes care of backing up the data so you are not stuck in the case of a hardware failure.

Other examples of outsourced data include:

• Content Management Systems (CMS) for web development rather than an html editor
• Google Docs for spreadsheet and word processing tasks rather than Office
• Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo for email rather than a local client that downloads all your mail (Outlook)
• Photo storage like Flickr, Shutterfly rather than local storage
• PaycheckCity.com for paycheck calculations rather than PayBreeze
• Mozy for backups rather than tapes and external drives that are not always stored offsite
• Picnik.com for photo editing rather than Photoshop or Paint Shop

There are many other programs that exist.  Feel free to post comments with your examples.

However, as I experienced the other day, what happens if the host or remote computer holding your data goes down?  What happens if your internet access goes down?  There is certainly a risk to the hosted idea, but I think the greater availability of access to the data outweighs these risks.  It’s also much easier to switch computers if you don’t really have anything of value stored locally.  It’s also safer to discard the old hard drives if you know there is nothing personally identifiable on them.