SugarSync, Evernote, Dropbox And More
First, may I wish all existing and new newsletter readers a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year. Putting global conflicts and the economy aside I have a feeling that 2012 will be the year when we see cloud computing hits its stride and enter mainstream business practices. The last two years have seen periods of awareness but hesitancy; the next 12 months I believe will see small to medium sized businesses either putting a toe into the water or dive headlong into the cloud. And I am not alone.
Laura’s Kitchen Sync Optimism
Laura Yecies
Laura Yecies, CEO at SugarSync writes in her personal blog, The Kitchen Sync: “My “aha” moment was last week. I was invited to be on two local TV shows – one here in San Francisco, one in Phoenix. For both the topic was basically about organizing your digital life using the cloud. This is the time of year for New Years resolutions about getting organized so timing is perfect for that topic. The reality is that the cloud is an excellent tool to help people get organized (more on that in another post).
“But back to the “aha” – it occurred last week when I was in the studio for the filming. It was the 3:00 show 7Live hosted by Brian Copeland. Here’s how they describe themselves. “We take an unconventional look at the news that has people talking including tech, pop culture, entertainment and politics.” The topics that preceded me were Iowa Caucus results, marriage proposal on the jumbotron at the UCLA game, and a dating service. I was followed by a live a cappella group.
“Watching all of this in the studio it hit me that others are seeing the cloud not just for the tech nerds (like me) but for them including the most non tech nerd daytime TV demographic. It was great to hear my non-techie friends that tuned in react to the show. They are going to try it. After all – they have the key ingredients – devices and data.”
I think a lot of the glossy hype surround cloud computing has been blown away and the stark, practical realities are now coming to the fore. It’s going to be a great and exciting year and I’ll do my best to keep you fully informed.
Good Reads
Following on from above one of the reasons I believe cloud computing will grow is covered in one of last week’s posts in which I write about how flexibility in working practices is encouraged by emerging cloud technologists. Terrorism, rising fuel prices and climate change could seriously affect how your business is run.
I have long argued that the future of cloud computing is in mobile devices and there is growing evidence that new smartphone and tablet technologies are driving changes in the way that cloud services are designed and delivered. A summary of why this is happening is in this post.
2011 saw some pretty dramatic screw ups and I think it is reasonable to assume that we shall see some problems in the next 12 months, too. I am not pessimistic that this will slow down cloud adoption and my reasons for this are contained in this post.
My Life Is Becoming Evernote Central
Over the holiday period I took a pretty conscious decision to make Evernote the centre of my attempts to keep my life is some semblance of order. I remain a big fan of Springpad but it slowly became obvious that Evernote offered a better focus on the ways that I collected and collated data.
Possibly the turning point was when I bought a LiveScribe digital pen which uploads jottings and drawings directly into Evernote. This week I have configured my old Epson three in one printer to upload scans directly into Evernote. All aspects of data collection and collation are now homogenising into Evernote data modules and I shall be writing a post to explain how and why this is happening.
Is Dropbox Doing A Google?
Towards the tail end of last year Lifehacker ran one of its High Five polls and invited readers to vote to nominate their favourite online file storage and sync service. Dropbox got a staggering 76 p[er cent of the vote while second place SugarSync collected nine per cent of votes cast. That is a huge gap and it is one that beggars belief.
I consider SugarSync to be substantially more powerful and flexible but if you read blogs and magazine articles whenever file sharing and syncing is mentioned Dropbox gets the mention leaving other services in the shade. The only reason I can think of its that like Google which has become synonymous with search then Dropbox has become the same with file sharing and syncing. I find it incredibly frustration but, hey, shit happens.
If you want to try out SugarSync free of charge and get an initial 5gb of storage by clicking this link you will be given an additional 500mb. For clarification and transparency if you do this I get an extra 500mb of storage space as well but as I am on a premium rate with a higher storage allocation it is not that relevant to me.
I think I’ll call an end to this newsletter with the reminder if you use or know of a service that haven’t covered please let me know.
