A great label for a technical product can work wonders for consumer takeup. See Blue Ray Vs HD-DVD, iPod v’s MP3 Player, Blackberry V’s Symbion O/S. Which leads me to Cloud Computing. I don’t generally like Cloud computing because internet access isn’t ubiquitous in Australia. Generally wireless access is good for around 40km from the CBD, then it becomes flaky or non existent in most places unless you have a land line connected.
Which leads me to a concept I do like, but there doesn’t seem to be a good name for it other than the description – Cloud Computing with automatic background sync and optimised local client. Basically your primary source of data sits on the internet, with a web based interface to access it, however it also automatically sync’s local copies of the data to what ever client your using, and has a local software for whatever environment you are using, that also automatically gets updated when a new version is released.
Too hard to understand? Picture this. I am writing an article using Open Office Write on the desktop in my home office. I get tired so I save it, shut down the computer and go to bed. Two weeks later I am in country Victoria without internet access, I pick up my iPad, open the article using Pages and add the new thought. Just like magic the article is there without me having to do anything. Some good examples of this concept, and free for the basic versions are:
Most Internet email setups default with what is called POP3 mail. This means you download your email to your local client, eg inmail, Outlook etc and delete it off the server. However there is almost always another version of email available with your ISP called IMAP. IMAP keeps your email on the server and syncs a local copy. I use Thunderbird on my desktop and netbook, and Apples email client on the iphone and ipad. All of them sync with the same IMAP mailboxes so I always have a local copy of all my incoming and outgoing emails no matter what device I happen to be using.
Dropbox is a file storage solution. It appears as a folder on my desktop, but anything I store in there, eg spreadsheets, images, drawings etc, also appears on my ipad and netbook where I also have dropbox setup. I have subfolders within my dropbox which I can share with friends and colleagues. This works really well for me as it makes it incredibly simple to work on and share share a document over 5MB with my colleague Grace in London, or some food recipes with a mate two blocks away. Drop box works on Mac’s Windows, iPads, Linux and is free for the first 2Gb of storage.
I use Google Calendar for all my calendering which syncs with my Desktop, Netbook, iphone and iPad. Once its configured, it automagically keeps things up to date. My wife also syncs a copy of my main calendar to her iPhone so she can see what evenings I will be out, or what we have planned on upcoming weekends.
The advantage of these types of solutions are:
- They are mostly completely free, or free for small usage levels.
- I remove the major issue with most of my IT solutions, which is me. After they are setup, they simply work and I don’t have to do anything or think about it.
- I don’t have to think about which device I will use, or which version I am accessing.
- I don’t have to be connected to the internet, to be effective.
- Accessing local data is much fast than accessing data on the internet.
- The background sync can normally be encrytped or can be setup as encrypted, which means I don’t have to worry about being hacked when my data passes over the internet. Although there is no such thing as totally safe data on the internet.
- Background sync means that there are lots of copies of my data – although bad entries can also propagate.
I am still looking for an encrypted password storage solution that works on Windows and the iPad, but I am sure one will appear soon as solutions that only sit on one decve are now considered to be “dumb” solutions.
Cloud Computing with automatic background sync and optimised local client isn’t a great name, but it is a great solution. I tend to think of it as Cloud Computing with local showers, but I don’t think this will catch on either.