Thing 45: Cloud Computing

Two summers ago (or has it been three?), I started using GoogleDocs. It was a way to do some work when I was not at my school or home computer. It was super effecient and the service has worked well for me. This past school year I've noticed more and more students using GoogleDocs as a way to get their school materials back and forth between home and school. For the most part, it works well. Formatting, on occasion, gives us some trouble.

I haven't moved my whole life there just yet . . . I still rely on the server at work for solid back-up, plus an occasional back-up on a plug in hard drive. For presentations I take materials on a jump drive as I don't want to be caught in a situation where there isn't a reliable internet connection and unable to access materials. A pal uses his Iphone in that same capacity.

Where does it go next? Great question. It seems like we have started some conversations about moving to cloud computing for students in the years to come, especially as it becomes cost prohibitive to keep up with all the technoligcal advance--this is true for both schools and families. Interesting to me, brother-in-law who was once a huge advocate for cloud computing has put himself back on the ground, and pulled everything back to local servers at home and hardwired things. No more wi-fi at their house. Security concerns drove this choice.

This article published last fall from the Christian Science Monitor discusses the impact of cloud computing on the business world and surmises only the powerful will succeed.