Why consider cloud computing?

A poll I saw today on LinkedIn today was asking respondents for to select the main reason for considering a cloud productivity solution. Interestingly this was Sponsored by Microsoft:

This piqued my curiosity as I know what the drivers are for myself and most of my customers - its always cost! £$!

I realise that, mired as we are in the middle of a deep recession,  that is hardly a deduction that would make Sherlock Holmes brow bead with sweat.

Indeed the result of the poll so far (image only as a LinkedIn account is required to view) bear this out:

However what intrigues me is that once the initial cost savings are accepted they soon become secondary to other benefits that would fall under the second most popular option. 'Ability to get advanced functionality'. 

"Come for the savings - stay for the fringe benefits"

The warm fuzzy feeling of having battled the evil forces of operating costs and come out on top like some sort of Conan the Barbarian fades quickly and the mind looks at more ethereal benefits, namely easier and more advanced collaboration.

To work on a document or spreadsheet concurrently, giving little or no thought to the process is manna from heaven and a feeling that hangs around longer than the quick win of saving some moolah.

Then out of the blue, without so much as a 'by your leave' and certainly no install or invoice the software sprouts some new feature, widget or tool that make life easier. 

'It just arrived one day when I logged in' is something I hear a lot about. Its also something that makes consulting around any cloud suite of tools a challenge. The speed of involvement, especially with productivity tools is insane.

So where do you sit on that first question? If you have already transitioned to a cloud based productivity app is 'Cost Reductions' still the most important reason for staying in the cloud?

Zoho Reports - Don't let your Business Intelligence become a monster

If you own or run a business you will be creating data in some form or another. Hopefully, there are customers, and profits as well, but data will be there pretty much from the first sale you make.


If your business is small, or just getting off the ground then the sales and the customers are your number one priority right? Without them you don't even have a business right? The information behind those sales, whatever that may be, is of seemingly low importance right now, after all a small business makes demands on you. Those customers don't just walk in and empty their wallets. That pipeline won't just fill itself...no, it's a full time job.


But if your business begins to grow you will soon reach a point where you are faced with problem of understanding where those sales came from, how much they cost you to achieve, where your successes came from and what didn't work along the way. So what's your option at this point? And where is the data?

Share and Share Alike

Amongst the list of benefits for Cloud Computing solutions you will always find 'Collaboration'. People have been sharing and collaborating for years but it's rarely been efficient. Here is a quick run down of collaboration techniques and technologies through history.

And no, its not meant to be a concise guide...I have deliberately omitted telepathy, smoke-signals and those rare times when we hear voices in our heads.

Google Chromebooks - Gamechangers?

ChromeOS is a web only OS developed by Google as an alternative to Windows/Apple offerings. Its been developed over the last 2 years or so but does it have what it takes to change the way we approach computing?

Well Google certainly thinks so. At Google I/O 2011 they announced they are partnering with Samsung and Acer for the hardware and will be releasing 2 Chromebooks on June 15th across the US, UK and other major European markets.

The New 'Normal'

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer talks about the phrase – ‘The New Normal’ in his most recent executive email. The ‘New normal’ equates to the new economy and social baseline since the economy went down the toilet last year. People are generally spending less, saving more and being more cautious. He then follows by saying

I believe the new normal requires a new kind of efficiency built on technology innovations that enable businesses and organizations to simultaneously drive cost savings, improve productivity, and speed innovation.

No really? I am pretty sure that if I picked almost any press release at random from Microsoft in the last 10 years that these phrases in one guise or another would come wheedling out of the woodwork.