Tech Outlook: Partly Cloudy

I read an article yesterday on TechCrunch entitled "Smart Mobile & the Thin Cloud". In it, the guest author discusses how mobile devices will soon be the #1 choice for quick computing & productivity and that the cloud will be "web 2.0" or mobile based and NOT "web 3.0". His agrument is that the web will eventually be completely mobile and that instead of "web 3.0" it will be a mobile web. He also states that the best device for accessing the cloud will be iPhone & Apple products because the simplicity of the user interface and streamlined hardware. 

I pretty well agree with the author, Keith Teare. From personal experience, we have switched all of our computing over to Apple devices except for two Windows based machines. Here is a quick Hardware "before" & after to show you how our companies have changed over the last year:

BEFORE
Mobile Computing

• PC Based Laptops for everyone
• 1 Mac OS 10 Laptop

Cell Phones

• Black Berrys for everyone
• 1 iPhone

Desktops

• 1 Dell XPS Desktop
• 1 HP Desktop -- interfaces with our Point of Sale

AFTER
Mobile Computing & Cell Phones

• ALL MacBookPros
• ALL iPads
• ALL iPhones

Desktops

• iMac at HQ
• 1 Dell XPS Desktop
• 1 HP (still will have to have one for each Restaurant)

What about Software? 

• We still use some Microsoft programs like, Excel. Almost everything else has been converted to Pages, Keynote, or Google Docs.
• For Calendar, Contacts, & Email: we use a Google Ap service with our web domain.
• There are additional "trade" programs that we use for the restaurant and for our sales teams that all have mobile or web based compatibility as well as some type of "cloud" storage.

Our big "unmet" need are two fold

1. Team based productivity software. Our sales teams have this covered, but project planning between the offices and task management between the management is difficult to manage if you are only using phone calls, emails, or texting services to relay messages and "tasks" that need to be completed. How do we know when they are complete and we can take the next step? How do we know what is left to do? How does a project manager know the next steps with out having to go through 10 emails? -- Where are we turning to get this problem solved? Third party developers who also are well versed in web based applications.
2. Our OWN cloud server. We want a way to USE the google and/or apple interfaces on our OWN cloud storage device so that we KNOW where the original is and we can back it up. Right now, there are products that can act as a cloud server, but the devices, like iPads, and the programs, like Keynote or Pages, do not easily "sync" with those cloud servers. There is a major disconnect there. When it is fixed, we will be "all in".

In summary, I think Mr. Teare is exactly right that we are moving to Cloud computing and the best devices to access that cloud are currently made by Apple. I just hope all of the tech develops fast enough to keep up! BUT, with the markets' volatility and VCs pulling investments from tech start-ups, it might be awhile before we are enabled to move further into cloud & mobile computing. Hence, the "Partly Cloudy" tech outlook.

Comments

[Alice Williams]

Nice post, thank you for sharing. You have really imparted useful knowledge. A very useful post I must say. Awesome content. I bookmarked it for future reference.

[Joshua Segraves]

Ray,
Few notes:

I'm an all Mac user as well, for personal use, and photography purposes. If I had my way, WM would use Macs... I love the hardware and OS, but I'm very leery of using Apple's proprietary software for anything critical... Apple has a habit of providing great software for a particular group of users, then pivoting and turning that software into something completely different (at at times less capable. See "Final Cut X" http://tinyurl.com/636ej5c).

After all of the hoopla over Final Cut, I made the decision to move from Aperture to Lightroom. Both are awesome pieces of software, but Aperture is required for files that have been imported into Aperture, while files in LR are able to be opened in any image editor that reads RAW files.

I use MS Office for word processing due to future capability concerns. I particularly dislike Office's insistance that I close EVERY FLIPPING PROGRAM I HAVE OPEN when it needs to update. It's like a little fly of MS in my ointment of Mac. It's not all roses, but it works.

For networked storage, have you thought of using Dropbox? Simplistic, I know, but it is compatible across all of your devices, and you can control what you publish to the general public. MS Sharepoint is another possibility. We use it at WM. Ugly, but effective.

Think I may have a lead on the project management software question... I'll let you know what I find.

[Joshua Segraves]

Check out basecamp for project management software. Haven't used it myself, but I've heard good things. http://basecamphq.com/

[Ray]

Will do. Thanks for all the feedback!!! We are still trying to figure out exactly how to create our own cloud. That's the goal. We have an FTP, but I would like many items to be accessible from mobile devices too. I've also looked at Drobos for onsight storage for graphics, images, & closed client files. Items that we don't need cluttering up the FTP or cloud.
It's difficult figuring all this out!