Today, Google took their MS Office plugin out of BETA and release Google Cloud Connect (GCC), a way to easily share and edit documents real-time with others. The video on their announcement is very compelling. From their blog:" It adds simultaneous collaboration, revision history, cloud sync, unique URLs and simple sharing to the Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint applications."
I recently started moving more of my business into the cloud. The business cloud application examples I’ve written about so far are more related to office productivity - word-processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. I took my small business and put its invoicing into the cloud by using the software as a service model (SAAS). Although I used ZOHO Invoice to do this, I’ll quickly discuss ZOHO along with others in it's class, like FreshBooks.
CYBERCOM Mission Statement: USCYBERCOM plans, coordinates, integrates, synchronizes and conducts activities to: direct the operations and defense of specified Department of Defense information networks and; prepare to, and when directed, conduct full spectrum military cyberspace operations in order to enable actions in all domains, ensure US/Allied freedom of action in cyberspace and deny the same to our adversaries."
This month’s botched upgrade to Hotmail by Microsoft is an example of one of the risks of cloud computing that I’ve written about in the past, but Microsoft took it to a whole new level. This article from InfoWorld is almost comical in cruel sort of way. It’s ironic that Microsoft was suggesting that people turn off other Micorosoft client side apps, like messenger to fix the issue. I doubt this was their vision for cloud computing. When I wrote about the risk of receiving an upgrade that you might not want or like, I wasn’t really talking about upgrades that actually start breaking things and turn into a nightmare for your support staff. This is an indication that a cloud service provider isn’t fully mature.
When you look at Google Wave, and the fact that Google is pulling it, I don't think so much about failure as I do about Google continuing to build intellectual capital (IC).
Something new to think about when moving into the cloud... location. You should probably know the physical location of your data when moving your compnay into the cloud. Physical location might impact the legal & regulatory aspects of moving to the cloud. More specifically, what country does the server reside in? Although I don't have all the answers regarding the specific legal and regulatory aspects that having your data in various countries may have, it's reasonable to postulate that there is most certainly risk here. For example, the US has very specific laws regarding search and seizure of computers and the information they hold, but these laws no longer apply when your data resides outside the US. I won't name countries here but many governments wouldn't hesitate to march into a data center, confiscate equipment and ask questions later. The point should be clear, understand where your data is kept and, if not in the US, understand the legal as well as business continuity risks. If you are a multi-national company it becomes more complex.
I've never really thought of phone service as something that you can move to the cloud until reading a white paper from Polycom and Broadsoft. Companies like Onsip, Vocalocity and others are doing this today and market it as "Hosted VoIP". I don't typically think of phone service when I think cloud computing but when comparing it to the advantages of cloud computing, it's a good fit.
Did you feel it? There was a disturbance in the cloud on June 1st. Hosting.com went down for about 45 minutes. Hosting.com hosts over 65,000 web sites and is a growing cloud computing provider.
