Cloud Computing and me...

             
 

        

So how do I use cloud computing? Perhaps the biggest hurdle with the cloud is that it is difficult for most of us to move directly from hard resources to soft resources and now to the online resources. Eventually, like a Gibsonian dream, all my instances will be on the cloud. But till then, the primary reason I use the cloud apps is to sync information stored locally on my hard drives with information on the cloud. 

Here are some of the cloud apps running in the background of my machines (a Tablet and Netbook running Windows 7 and an iPhone running MacOS):

Like everyone, I have much of my information stored on Google. Through a suite of cloud applications like GoogleDocs, Picasa and GMail {for contacts and calendar}, I am able to store a lot of information and share this information with anyone I choose. I dont think I need to explain Google Docs and the amazing ability to now construct information in real time with multiple collaborators. You have no idea (or maybe you do) how useful a tool Google Docs can be when you are trying to co-ordinate information across multiple parties that are not co-located! In addition Google also has Google Sync which syncs the calendar and contacts on my iPhone with GMail - all over the air, while Google Calendar Sync allows me to keep the calendar on my desktop Outlook and GMail sync'ed.

I update files all the time, and not always on the same machine. How do I make sure all of this information is properly synced across different machines? Surprisingly the answer comes from a company you probably weren't expecting - Microsoft! 

Microsoft has made a host of new acquisitions to move their operations to the cloud. One such interesting acquisition is FolderShare (bought from ByteTaxi in 2005 and now called Windows Live Sync). This is a free service that allows you to sync the files in 2 or more computers. Live Sync allows upto 20 folders (or "libraries") and each library can contain a maximum of 20,000 files and each file cannot exceed 4GB. You will not believe how useful Live Sync is - I can now make a change on one machine and expect to see the same file when I open up the other one. All over the air! Microsoft also offers a second service that is extremely useful - Skydrive. Skydrive is part of the Live suite and offers you 25 GB of access-anywhere-as-long-as-you-have-internet space (for free)! Of course to compete with Google, Microsoft has now taken their Office suite of products to the cloud - called Office Live, it offers pretty much the same as Google Docs - except that if you have Windows and Office 2007 or later you can save directly from your desktop to your Live folder.

Dropbox is another app I use frequently. The great thing about Dropbox is that it sets up a folder on your desktop and has an app for the iPhone. What this means is that I can drag upto 2 GB {for free, more if you pay} worth of files and documents into the Dropbox folder - and it will be sync'ed across all Dropbox instances (including my iPhone).

After a recent upgrade cleared out all my contacts on the iPhone - I decided that my contact list was too valuable to lose. So I decided to do another search for a cloud app to store my contacts - and surprise, surprise, I found one. Soocial is a cloud app that allows you to store your contacts and sync it across multiple connections. So Outlook on my Tablet and Netbook as well as my GMail contacts are all connected to Soocial - such that if I make a change in any one of these, that change is {nearly immediately} reflected across all the others.

So far my schizophrenic lifestyle has been great - thanks to these and other purely-on-the-cloud apps that make my digital life so much easier. What cloud apps run in the background of your machines?

Comments

[Daniel Erwin]

can't leave out del.icio.us - i only wish it automatically ran in the background and gave me charts and graphs about my information diet (I only hope my occassional candy binges of webcomics can be purged from the records...)

and just learned a new one today: http://www.tomsplanner.com/ for making Gantt charts. Reminds me about google charts, which is still a little difficult to access.

[Spif]

Hi Anijo, thanks for the mention of Soocial (I'm one of the founders). I think you touch on some interesting points.

One of the biggest hurdles still remaining in getting the cloud functioning correctly for us is the interoperability between sites. Things are getting much better especially with Single sign-on methods (for example your twitter sign-on to be able to comment here).

I hope in the short term to be able to integrate Soocial with third party services so that your address book can be used within these apps. For example would be great to be able to have your own address book in Dropbox and be able to share files with other users.

Keep it up and let us know if you need help or have ideas for Soocial.