Auditel Consultant:
Denis & Rhys Brennan

Working in the “Cloud” – Internet data storage

01 Apr 2010 | Filed under: IT

I am now working in “the cloud”, floating “on high o’er vales and hills”, for those of a literary bent. Well, actually, not quite- I’m in a Dropbox or, at least,this document is in a folder stored in a Dropbox. That means it has two existences: one here on my desktop, where I can access it as another locally addressed document; the second somewhere on the internet, on a server for Dropbox documents. When I save it, that’s where I can find it and, most interestingly, so can anyone else to whom I grant shared access to the folder in question. This, very neatly, addresses three concerns for any business, or, at least, two concerns and one interest.

First, the concerns. One, my document (or all my documents if I so wish) is backed up. I can rely on Dropbox, the company, also to have backup copies of all the folders they are managing for their clients. Two, my document is synchronized. If I travel, I can access the last saved copy from anywhere in the world, from any computer running the necessary software (in this case, Microsoft Word or a compatible editor). When I save it and get on the plane (or the bus) to come home, it’s waiting for me when I get back to the office and my desktop.

The third point – the “interest” if not a concern, is that I can make it available to co-workers to read, edit, comment etc… and I don’t have to clog up my email by sending it to them.

Dropbox isn’t unique; there are other competitor products. But this is a real benefit of cloud computing. I’m sold!

Oh, and on that point, bearing in mind that I’m a cost management specialist, advising businesses on smarter procurement, I have more good news. Dropbox is not expensive. In fact you can get 2GB of storage free. 50GB costs $99 p.a. and 100GB $199 p.a. It costs slightly more if you pay per month but, on the other hand, you can cancel before the next monthly payment is collected so you’re not tied in.

So, a small contribution to helping SMEs to keep down their IT costs and secure their data. If you’d like a bigger contribution to managing down your costs, get in touch. Happy Easter!