Thursday, December 8, 2011

My life in the Cloud

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.