Logic’s End

An Essential Tool for Cloud Computing

What is the single most desperate problem with our reliance on information technology? Computers fail. There are several sound ways to prepare for failure, but they all have one thing in common: a measure of human diligence, timeliness and an element of chance. It doesn’t matter whether you spend $100 or $10,000, data is never guaranteed safe.

No matter how frequently one backs up that data, there is a tangible risk of loss. Hard drives die, compact discs warp, and both are easily misplaced. Moreover, software changes, becoming incompatible with saved data over time. The rapidly growing trend of so-called “Cloud Computing” promises to ease our burden by making valuable data more independent from our machines, although it is by no means a panacea.

We’ve been computing in the cloud to varying degrees for decades. However, with faster connections, cheaper storage and increasingly portable computers (netbooks), the practice is catching on in ways never thought possible. It started with services such as HotMail and Yahoo Mail. With either of them, email was safe and accessible (notwithstanding spam), so long as you didn’t have more than 25MB.

From a web once dominated by static HTML sites and complex search indexes rose companies like Google with their world-renown search technology. Microsoft and Yahoo cleared the skies for cloud computing, but it was Google that blasted across them. What was once unheard of became commonplace. Consumers could sign up for Google Mail and receive a virtually limitless amount of storage for their daily email. Email made was safe for many, but what about our files and programs? The public slowly grew accustomed to cloud computing, setting the stage for truly grand pursuits.

While cloud computing may also be referred to as the use of web applications or network computing, neither have the same ring. From a business standpoint, if a concept is going to take hold, its name often makes or breaks the deal. The alliteration of cloud computing rolls off the tongue with ease, making it an IT marketing manager’s dream! A cloud implies much more than email or file storage. It envisions an ethereal world of limitless possibilities. So what exactly does it offer us, and how does it keep our data safe and make us technologically independent?

Imagine the grim scenario where your house or apartment is lost in fire. Your computer is reduced to ash, and that shiny backup drive with your entire life’s worth of documents and photos shares the same fate. Even if you own a laptop, chances are that your still in a pretty tight spot at that point.

Nonetheless, it doesn’t take such extreme circumstances to yield similarly disastrous results. Accidentally dropped your laptop? Hard drive clicking? Desktop shorted out after a storm? Either way you’ll be scrambling to pick up the pieces. Assuming you can save the data, you’re still faced with reinstalling and reconfiguring all of the software, which often entails hours of downloading. What if all of your applications and files lived on the Internet and were accessed them on demand? Such is the promise of cloud computing as enjoyed in-part by early adopters of web email.

Google Chrome is on the horizon, and it promises to begin a shift toward complete cloud computing. A laptop with Google Chrome will require an Internet connection, but it accesses all programs and data over that connection. Lose that laptop or back over it with a forklift? That’s okay because when you get another you may instantly resume working right where you left off! Cloud apps: Google Docs, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, and Pandora (my personal favorite) form the cornerstones of the movement. It’s a notion no longer foreign to old industry juggernauts. Microsoft is now touting Office Live, which offers free online creation, use, and storage of Office documents (mirroring the functionality of Google Docs).

What’s the thunderhead of cloud computing? Hackers have already shown us with stolen Twitter, Facebook, and GMail accounts: risk is transferred from the physical storage to digital protection of your data. The world’s best security is rendered useless with passwords like “God” or “Password1″. Cloud computing or not, a little common sense applies to keep your data safe, sanity in check, and systems available.

The chances of breaking into your house and stealing that new laptop are relatively small, but by the same token the odds of a malicious robot from China cracking into a GMail account, wiping out emails, and stealing your identity are much higher. Some claim the dangers of cloud computing make it altogether too hazardous, therefore impractical. I tend to disagree vehemently. With a little forethought and a nod to basic security practices, one can easily underscore the benefits and avoid the drawbacks of computing in the cloud.

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

-Benjamin Franklin

Cloud apps are money in the bank (a lot of them are free) and fewer things to worry about when your system fails (tip: don’t kid yourself, it will). Moreover, the requirements for computers capable of cloud computing are lower. Therefore once again saving us money; they inevitably cost less. Cloud computing: it saves time, money, and potentially a life’s worth of work. It’s safely accessible from anywhere in the world. If it’s liberation from consumer technology that you seek, then look no further.

Cazmunity Guest Blogger

It’s not often that I overtly discuss who I am or what I do for a living on this blog. Rather, my preference is to ponder broad concepts and let my words, and the words of my readers, do the talking. Lately, I’ve been preoccupied with laying a philosophical foundation for the countless applications of social networking. I do this for both personal edification, as well as to better guide me in my career, where I’m constantly rationalizing technology for our clients. Every remarkable advancement in life requires an anchor in theory and a degree of prudence in execution.

The foremost goal of Logic’s End remains: to inspire readers and encourage healthy debate. However, the prospect of connecting with friends and colleagues with through a blog is always inevitable, intentional, and deeply inspirational. Thus, without further ado, I’d like to announce that my employer has recently bestowed upon me the honor of sharing one of my more popular posts on the company employee blog: Cazmunity.

I am humbled and grateful, to say the very least. As time progresses, Cazmunity will hopefully become a nexus of thought provoking content designed to shine a light over the path to technological success for small businesses everywhere. In the meantime, keep your eyes peeled here on Logic’s End, feel free to comment, and stop back for more appetizing content as the days roll by!

Awakening from the Storm

When the storm of the financial crises finally subsides (I realize for some that the light at the end of the tunnel is still quite dim), we’ll be left with a shell of our former economy that will need to be filled. It’s in that shell that, for savvy entrepreneurs, a superb place to break ground, innovate, and turn a record profit will be found.

One could say that Web 1.0 collapsed at the end of the initial dot com boom. All of the sudden folks realized that establishing a website wasn’t going to make them rich overnight. This realization often struck just after investing thousands into building said website. It wasn’t long after the coinciding recession that the flag of Web 2.0 would be waved proudly above the proverbial ashes and companies climbed back to profitability.

Unfortunately, one of Web 2.0′s core principles: semantic search technology (being able to identity from obscurity what a person is looking for),  was quickly overshadowed by Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing (SEO & SEM). SEO and SEM companies popped up all over the map, from office parks to college apartments, all promising something akin to the next gold rush on the Internet.

The remnants of the SEO and SEM boom remain today. Sure, some companies are still turning a profit, but it’s ultimately a war that can’t be won. What’s the Achilles heal? Keywords and page rank. The entire process of fighting for the first page on Google’s results is a highly artificial process that the SEO/SEM giants have proven can be manufactured with relative ease. Sensing an industry shift, Google is gradually taking steps to counteract that trend, much to the chagrin of industry leaders.

Enter the era of Web 3.o, where search technology and marketing finally begin to mold themselves around our natural habits. Keywords and page rank will always be valuable tools, but that’s just what they are, tools. They, just like the websites of the 1990′s, are not sufficient on their own as a marketing strategy. Take Microsoft’s Bing, it’s gaining ground, forcing Google to modify it’s own technologies, with the argument that search results must be more substantial and less driven by top keyword hits alone.

Modifying the way search engines return results is the first shot across the bow, and hopefully not the last, of a renaissance. The direct hits are the social networks. From a personal standpoint, they offer several rewarding characteristics. Staying in touch with family and friends is among the best. However, it’s how these networks accommodate businesses that will set the pace of what’s to come.

Facebook has proven itself as an avenue upon which businesses may purchase ads. The returns are often nothing short of revolutionary, even for the so-called little guys (small businesses without the money to manipulate their SEO/SEM in the traditional sense). Want to target people who are newly engaged with travel specials, no problem with Facebook because they’ll tell you exactly who they are with their profile information.

Let’s say you tweet your displeasure with your local Wal-Mart’s customer service. One of their twitter community managers could instantly reply to you with something like a 10% coupon code for your next visit (a community manager is new type of career specializing in managing a company’s online reputation).

Web 3.0 is all about reaching out to customers at the very moment they’re thinking about your business. It’s fundamentally a more natural way to market. As a consumer, it’s more appealing than clipping coupons or dealing with aggravating lines at customer service desks and automated phone banks. With real-time location tracking in mobile markets, announcements and instant coupons from networks like Foursquare can increase benefits for businesses and consumers alike.

Are we more likely to buy products from resellers at the top of a list of SEM driven results, or from the recommendations of our best friends and neighbors? People generally enjoy getting a recommendation from someone they know or any other human being at the very least. Social networks provide those capabilities like never before. They complement (perhaps even precisely mirror) the ancient practice of word-of-mouth marketing. We can now determine how, where, what, when, and to whom we market. As long as we exercise restraint to avoid disastrous implications for our personal privacy, such as forewarned by Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, we can harness this technology to make the world a better place for ourselves.

When we recover from this recession, social networks will be the vehicles towing us out of it. We’re learning a lot about ourselves in the process. If you’re a business owner, skeptical of the Internet for its inherent impersonal and dehumanizing nature, social media can assist in globally establishing a level of human trust previously reserved for your local walk-in customers. Those who take advantage of these technologies stand to awake from the current storm pleasantly surprised with their improved reputation and market advantages over those who once were their most formidable competitors.