The cloud is a good thing for SMB IT folks even if they don’t yet know it.

The mix of local network and hosted apps expertise is quickly becoming the blend for the long run. The cloud lets us get bigger, better, faster but unless you are a home business looking to green light your first website then it requires knowhow, strategy, and ongoing management.

Virtualizing has really blurred the line between the traditional buy/lease and just knowing your IP with shell access. This is not going to go away either as businesses continue to look for places to reduce expenses for both salary and real estate while needing to stay technologically competitive.

There is huge opportunity in this shift and the nimble ones that spin up their knowledge on the who, what, and where of managing businesses in the cloud will prosper. There will always be a need for a technology conductor even if its not you playing the instruments.

Ive spent the better part of five years mastering a world class sync between multiple computers, virtual machines, smart phones, laptops, ipads, and webmail. It was not a smooth ride in getting there however, as my attempts to find the perfect solution were each beset with failure. Sometimes big failure!

I’ve tried Google Apps more than once, four different Exchange vendors, managing my own mail server, Zimbra (I think that is a drink) and yes .mac. There were many days and nights (and weeks) when fighting with Google during an attempted migration kept me up late and woke me up early. Work didn’t get done and I literally became obsessed with just getting back to par.

I specifically remember saying, “I will never try that again” more than one time. Trust me, the only thing more painful than saying that once is saying it twice.

Ive seen everything they can throw at a person: exceeded your bandwidth, over your quota, account not transitioned fully, account temporarily locked, and im sure a bunch more Ive tried to forget. I think the biggest pain point for me however was that I was trying to stay with Apple Mail and Ical.

At the end of the day there is no such thing as a play nice mail or calendar client on Mac. They all have their shortcomings and its just a choice between them. The only saving grace here is that I was not using Windows and Outlook to manage my life, despite dealing with it day in and day out for my clients. Outlook is actually not a bad program when you are forced to live in the other world.

Fast forward to 2011 and I must have forgotten my pain. I had recently spent some time in Google Apps for Business and became impressed with the control and management capabilities, not to mention the great Google Calendar. As intrigue turned into action I dove back into migration hell.

I knew there was no turning back as dramatic as that sounds. I decided to fight through whatever they threw at me – this time. Yup, I saw bandwidth exceeded (go away for 24 hours), account didn’t transition correctly, duplicate folder creation and more. I made it across and it was worth the swim. The spinning wheel of Apple finally got me to quit Mail and Ical and Im loving it.

Im even loving the concept of labels.

Labels and tags always seemed like something the other guy should be doing.

For me – it finally makes sense. I don’t wan’t to see folders and sub folders and paths and all that. Just let me tag everything smartly and give me a big auto complete search box to drive from.

Folders are clutter. Tags are smart.

A few more days to get my brain around keyboard shortcuts and I think Ill be golden.

It was a battle of will but the freedom of hosted apps makes it all worth it. No more spinning ball for me. Did I mention that I also quit Safari for that same reason? This fanboy is exposing himself as a free thinker. Im not sure if Apple to Google is free thinking but its something.

Im afraid that I may come back one day and write a similar note about switching from iOS to Android but not anytime soon.I just get too much of a kick out of my friends complaining when AT&T drops our call.

Lots of work to do but its a start.

Come in and take a peek at our new site and theme, the integration of Iteam Consultants and J3 Studio into one showcase.

Its bare bones today but we’ll be adding all sorts of fancy website toys in the days to come.

Technologist, designer, producer, coder (ok i can manage the coding), business strategist, marketer and overall a guy that lives and breathes this stuff.

Things get done. Get done right. On time. The way Id expect for my own business.

Not to sound cliche’, but check back in a few days from now. The place will be polished up a bit more.