I am pretty much 100% in the Cloud now. Here's how I do it.
Services
- Email: Google GMAIL (with "Tasks")
- Calendar: Google Calendar
- Documents: Google Docs (with a sprinkle of DropBox, going away soon enough)
- Music: combination of Rdio and Grooveshark
- Movies: Netflix (on my Android devices, Apple TV and MacBook Pro)
- Code: Github
- Project Issue Tracker: Lighthouse
What I gain:
- Mobility
- Availability
- Persistence
- Version Control
I don't need to worry about loosing / forgetting my laptop for work: I just grab a spare one at work. Hence, business continuity is greatly improved over the traditional Microsoft "stack".
So, on my Linux/OSX PCs, I only need the following installed software:
- Google Chrome (the auto-sync feature for bookmarks, extensions etc. is way cool :)
- Eclipse (with PyDev, Google Plugin, Egit)
- git
When it comes time to setting-up a complete working environment, I can turnaround one in under 1/2 hour!
Security
The first reaction I get when I expose my workflow: is this Cloud stuff secure? To which I respond with a combination of the following:
- I would rather trust Google and their army of sysadmins than me when it comes to external security threats
- I never write down passwords nor credit card numbers in documents. Period.
- Doing business comes down to trust - being part of society requires trust
- My data is more secure located in the Cloud than on my laptop / desktop : those are too easy to lift
Availability
Another common reaction is about availability. I don't know about you guys, but Internet Access is pretty available nowadays and certainly Google is. For those of you worried about this dimension, consider:
- I have access through my Android mobile devices (carrier #1)
- I have access through my 3G dongle (carrier #2)
- I have access through my Cable Modem (carrier #3)
Yes I subscribe to 3 different carriers - I don't remember the last time I lost connectivity and was out of commission, business wise.
Posts
