More and more we are becoming people on-the-go. From business travel and meetings, to events, appointments and the many other things going on in our daily lives we are constantly on the move.On average we spend more than an hour a day traveling to and from work. And with the demands of our digital lifestyle with smart phones, email and instant messaging, we often need our files and computer programs ready and with us where ever we are.
Ensuring that our digital lives are as mobile as we are once meant transferring files back and forth between various computers; a process which often results in a disorganized mess of files across multiple systems. With the growth in netbooks popularity, that has quickly changed. With these micro computers operating on very little processing power and smaller hard drives cloud based services (web based programs) have been growing in popularity. Cloud computing is allowing people to not only save space on their computers but also have their files and documents stored in one central location.
File Storage:
Working on multiple systems can be an easy way to become disorganized and even loose important data. With cloud computing files can be stored in one central space online, ensuring that these files are safe and secure. This means no worrying about whether your system crashes and no searching through multiple computers to find the documents you need.
Two popular online storage services are Syncplicity and Dropbox. By downloading a single storage folder wherever you need your data, these services allow you to save your files online and syncs them with all of your devices. As an added feature both services provide up to the minute backup allowing you to go back in time to retrieve older copies of your files. Both of these services provide 2 gigabytes of free storage space in their basic accounts but for a monthly fee you can also upgrade your space by up to 50 gigabytes of storage. A few other online storage options include Mediafire, Yuntaa and Orbitfiles.
Productivity:
Having your essential office programs online means you can take your work with you where ever you go. A more widely known cloud based office suite is Google docs, which allows you to create and share documents, spreadsheets and presentations through your Google account. This can act as a great central storage hub for all of your documents. Similar to this service is Microsoft’s Office Live Workspace which allows you to store and share your Microsoft Office documents in a single workspace and may be a sign of things to come with Microsoft Office 10.
For email on the go mail2web Webmail and mail2web Personal Webmail are great options. Without having to use computer based email systems such as Microsoft Outlook, you can securely read your email. mail2web Personal webmail also provides you with your own personal email portal (such as http://mail2web.com/kevin) and contact manager which you can view on your laptop or mobile device and customize whichever way you want.
In addition to these services there are some other great productivity tools to build your digital office such as presentation tools like Slide Rocket and Prezi , digital desktops such as G.ho.st and Evernote or online collaboration tools such as Adobe Acrobat, Zoho and Microsoft Sharepoint services.
Photo and Video Editing:
Once thought to be the most hardware intensive tasks for your computer you are now able to upload and edit your digital media on the go. Well known for their software based photo editing suite Adobe has released a simplified version of Photoshop for the web. Containing many of the basic photo editing tools it allows you to save and edit your photos on the go. A similar service to this is Picnik which allows you to grab the photos you have stored online from sites such as Facebook and Flickr and edit them with their online toolset.
For online video editing there are also a number of services to choose from such as Stash Space , Motion Box and JayCut. With easy upload and online storage space these sites let you edit your videos and share them with your family and friends as well as help convert them to storable files when you’re ready to produce it on physical media.
As more and more traditionally software based tools are transferred online, people are becoming less tied to their desks and are able to take their work with them on the go. By using cloud based services you don’t need to worry about where your files are stored as they’re now available to you anywhere you can find an internet connection. With services that store your files across computers, allow you to work and collaborate as well as edit your digital media on the go the internet is allowing people to do what they want wherever they are.
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I’m looking forward to the universally accessible pool that cloud servers provide. One of my biggest frustrations is when I can’t share materials/programs with my clients!
I can’t wait for the universal cloud either. How much time have I spent searching for one file or another over the years?
It is amazing how easy video editing has become. In the future everyone’s going to be an amateur film director.
Has anyone been able to hack into the cloud yet? I’d want to make sure it’s as hack-prrof as possible before getting involved.
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