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In The Cloud
By Martin Spriggs:Bio on September 5, 2008
This week I had the opportunity to attend a conference that discussed how feasibly it is to do all your computer work “in the cloud”. What that means is that all of your applications are on the web and not housed locally on your computer. That means not only the applications you use to create content (Word, Excel, Powerpoint), but also the content itself (the Word document, etc.). This obviously implies that you need consistent internet access. That isn’t always the case yet for a lot of us, but signs are suggesting its coming.
There are obviously a number of benefits to this concept. One of them is that you don’t need a very “beefy” computer to work like this. You just need something with a keyboard, internet connection and modern web browser. Your computer today is likely fast enough and its life could be extended through cloud computing. For organizations it eliminates the need for expensive and complex servers. And believe it or not it helps in the area of security as many of these companies maintain a much more secure environment than a church or school could ever do. Two last benefits are price and features. Many of the “cloud” computing applications today are free for moderate use and offer an ever growing feature set that automatically get added to your environment without needing you to “upgrade.”
It’s not all positive news, but I’ll save the negatives for my next post. In general, I believe there is value for our congregations and schools to at least consider this alternative. While at the conference I heard from a young man who went to school in a San Mateo, CA school where they have decided to do all their work “in the cloud” using Google Apps (which by the way is free for non-profits). They submit their homework via this system as well as all their other day to day work.
If you’d like to learn more about the possibilities, feel free to contact me. If you have “in the cloud” experiences (sounds a little charasmatic doesn’t it), please share via comments.
Topics: SYNOD LEADERS, Technology
Tags: cloud, computer, database, internet, Technology
September 5th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
It certainly seems that "in the cloud" is the up and coming service model in the tech world. It’s definitely an interesting area to watch.
I think these services are a great way for WELS congregations to take advantage of new and powerful technologies that they do not have the skills or resources to implement themselves. No expensive server or network hardware and no ongoing maintenance for your technology volunteers. As you mentioned, there are some downsides, but overall there are some great opportunities here for low-budget tech teams.
I have now been involved in rolling out Google Apps for three WELS congregations and have to say that at each it has been a great success. I have nothing but good things to say about this service. It allowed us to offer services to our staff that just would not have been possible otherwise. I think that it is a great fit for WELS churches and schools.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Greetings Martin
Sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet-up at the conference last week.
There was a lot of focus this year on “enterprise” stories. I guess that’s a sign of a maturing industry.
You seem to be an expert with small teams. We just released a new product to help teams of <18 people manage their relationships and work activity. It uses some interesting new and simple concepts and of course …. runs in the cloud. I’d be happy to send you a summary if you’d like but please don’t write about us IN YOUR NEXT POST Info also at http://joblogs.cc
September 9th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Steve, perhaps next time. Regarding Joblogs, I’ll take a closer look. At first glance it looks like something we are already managing within our Sharepoint installation.