Ever tried to update your iPhone and it didn’t work out quite how you expected? Well unfortunelty it seems to happen a bit so here’s a quick and easy way to recover your iPhone if you find your iPhone looks like the picture below and iTunes is prompting you to erase and restore!

It’s very simple.

1. Close iTunes

Unfortunetly iTunes isn’t very helpful in this situation and wants you to erase and restore, but the problem is, when was the last time you backed up? It may have been ages ago.

2. Download Recboot

Recboot is a simple little utility which allows you to to turn off recovery mode within your iPhone and allow it to boot! You can get it here.

Download the appropriate version, eg. If you are running a Mac download the Mac version and likewise if you are running a PC.

3. Open Recboot

Make sure you have your iPhone plugged in via the USB cable with iTunes shut and then fire up Recboot.

4. Press ‘Exit Recovery mode’

That’s it! A very handy utility worth keeping on hand when iTunes decides that today is just not your day.

Enjoy!

The more reliance we have on the internet the more we all need to know how to fix it. So it’d be pretty handy to be armed with what to do when it all starts to go ‘pear shaped’. Or at least know some basics. But trying to work out whether it’s the browser, the computer, the modem, the ISP (Internet Service Provider) or even the webpage you want to see causing the problem, doesn’t appear to be the easiest to achieve. However there are a couple simple checks you can do before reaching for the phone and calling for help.

Below are a few tips anyone can use to help find out whether an internet problem is isolated or whether it is just part of a bigger problem.

1.  Down for everyone or just me?

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Ok, so if  you have a problem with a webpage you are trying to browse to, firstly you’d close down your browser, open it up again and see if the page loads this time. If that doesn’t work I’d recommend you browse to a completely different website, such as, you’re internet banking site and see if that works. If it does you know your internet is working, what you don’t know is whether the page is “Down for everyone or just me”. So to check, just browse to downforeveryoneorjustme.com and plugin the site you are having problems with and within a matter of milliseconds you’ll know!

Is facebook down?

Here’s a simple example where I can’t get to facebook for some reason. So I ask the question:

And the answer is…

2. How fast is my internet?

http://www.speedtest.net/

Curious? Or ever been asked how fast or wondered why so grindingly slow the internet is? First stop is to measure how fast your Internet speed so you know what is ‘normal’. Once you’ve browsed to Speedtest just click on the “Begin Test” button (note if prompted for flash, feel free to install)  and let the site do the rest. Once it’s done it’s thing you’ll get some stats on your upload and download speeds as well as your ping. Run it a few times and you should get an idea your average speed is. Next time you have a problem with slow internet speed you can check speedtest and make sure that your internet connection is still operating ok and if it is, maybe it’s the site you are looking at?

My speed is…

The results below are an example of what speed I’m getting from my home internet connection:
 
After clicking ‘Begin Test’ the results are in…

3. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

As slack as Roy is (character off The IT Crowd tv series)and as much as we hate waiting for a reboot it’s generally the first question IT Support will ask, and that’s simply because it fixes the majority of IT problems in the shortest amount of time. But before turning off everything try restarting your modem first, wait a few minutes and turn it back on wait a couple more minutes to allow it to connect and then try to browse the internet to see if it was just a modem issue (or if you have another computer see if that is still working before restarting your modem). If that doesn’t work turn off both your computer and modem again, wait 10 minutes and turn them back on again. Why wait 10 minutes? Well sometimes your ISP can have a problem where it thinks your modem is connected, when in fact it is not and it won’t let your modem connect because of this. Waiting 10 minutes normally allows the problem to clear at the ISP and resolves this hiccup.

Got a tip?

How do you solve your internet problems? Do you reach for the phone straight away or are there some checks you do beforehand? Leave us a comment below, and tell us how you fixed your IT problem. (By the way, if you happened to like The IT Crowd clip here’s a longer clip of the episode and very funny!)

This is a question I am asked almost weekly. The selection available is huge so it’s a fair question, everyone wants to make sure they get the right one whilst at the same time keeping a lid on how much they’re spending. With my top tips you’ll have a plan of attack on deciding what lappie is right for you, and without any help from IT you can do it on your own!

Note: Now that netbooks, ipad’s and other portable ‘versions of the modern day computer’ are available a laptop may not even be the best fit for you. But to keep this post to the point I’ll just be addressing how to buy a laptop specifically.

Let’s set a budget

This is always the first question I ask and generally the answer goes one of two ways.

Answer 1: About $1000.00-$1500.00
OR
Answer 2: I don’t know, how much do you think?

If you already know how much you have to spend, just work your way down through the points listed below and prioritise what’s important to you. Once you have your budget and priority list in hand you’ll have the info you need to choose a laptop most appropriate for you. Then you can jump on to the websites of Dell, Sony, HP, Apple, Asus and Toshiba, just to name a few, to see what matches up best!

With those of you that don’t know your budget, or would like help on deciding on how much to spend, we first need to work out what you want to do with it. Gone are the days where you had to spend a minimum of $3500+ to get a “real” laptop. Almost any laptop these days will perform basic internet and email functions along with performing office document functions.

What tasks are we going to use it for?

I’ve split the most common uses into three options, just choose what fits you best and this should give you some idea of how much you need to spend.

Occasional Use
If it’s just occasional use such as utilising MS Office, browsing the internet, checking your email and dumping your digital photos then generally any laptop will be powerful enough to cater to your needs. There’s no longer the need to spend a small fortune to get the necessary tech specs to perform the common functions needed today. Set your budget range for $800-$1300.

Everyday Use + more…
If you’re using your computer almost daily and you also have some hungry applications you need for work, a little more grunt may be required in the memory or processor department. Everything will run a little bit snappier than the base model laptops and if you prefer that and willing to invest a bit more set your budget for $1300-$1800.

High end use
No room for sluggish behaviour here! If you’re into engineering, gaming, design or any graphics intensive applications you’re going to need a high end piece of equipment. Or, if money is no option this is the one for you. Set your budget for $1800+

Minimum Tech specs

There are some simple minimum requirements I’d like to recommend on any laptop you choose…
2GB RAM (memory) – It’s cheap and makes your programs load up and operate that little bit faster and in most cases it will be the default offering anyway.
Dual Core CPU or processor – You’ll be able to tell if the lappie has this as it will mention ‘Dual Core’ when talking about the processor. If it doesn’t say this or it is labelled as ‘Celeron’ instead I’d advised you upgrade it or move on to one that does. (Celeron is the extremely poor cousin which equals cheap but very slow in comparison).
7200rpm hard drive – Generally the hard drive is the slowest part of your computer as it still has moving parts in it (think of it as like a record player with the pin scanning the spinning disk like a record), so I’d recommend you demand a minimum rpm speed of 7200. Most of the extremely large drives 500GB+ are still running at 5400rpm and there is a significant boost in performance by choosing the 7200rpm drives.

(You may have heard about solid state hard drives (SSD), which have no moving parts like USB sticks. These are fast, but from a bang for buck point of view I don’t think they are quite worth the extra dosh required…yet. If your budget allows I’d get one, but I stress they are far from necessary.)

I like brand ‘X’

If you like to buy via a brand recommendation then in all honesty I’d have to say Dell. Their range is massive, their website is very user friendly, their price is generally the cheapest and their warranty is fantastic. I’ve personally experienced good laptops from Acer, Toshiba, HP and IBM as well, but at the moment Dell has it for me.
For a warranty example, a couple years ago the hard drive in my Dell laptop started ‘ticking’ which is normally a sign that it is about to go. I had ProSupport warranty on the laptop and Dell sent someone personally out to deliver the replacement hard drive. Not only did I not have to send the laptop away, I was able to keep both hard drives for the next 7 days so I had time to transfer all my data across from the old drive to the new. It’s not if a computer fails it’s when, so this type of support from Dell speaks for itself.

Do you like ‘em BIG or small?

Small
I personally like small screens, eg 12 – 13”, because portability is more important to me than screen size. Plus I can mitigate the screen size issue by plugging into a docking station hooked up to a large LCD. Being small also makes it easy to balance on the armchair of our lounge when working at home! (although I’ll admit my last laptop didn’t balance too well and came off second best hitting the floor!).

Medium
Medium size are generally your 14 – 15″ laptops. These are the most commonly bought and sold laptops. They have a good balance of size versus weight and have a decent enough screen size to cater for most.

Large
The large laptops are 16 – 17″ and above. Most people I’ve found that like these have wanted the largest screen they can get in a laptop, and their laptop generally stays in the same spot on a desk. Therefore portability is not an issue and you get the full size keyboard with the keypad. I’ve found the older generation love these due to their poorer eyesight and accountants love them for the keypad!

If you are unsure on size, have a look and get a feel for the different sizes in a shop or have a look at a friend’s laptop for size. Like buying a car until you’ve actually taken it for a test drive you won’t really know for sure whether it is the right size for you.

What’s your favourite colour?

Ok, so in the old days, the options were black and…..black. Nowadays, the laptop is a personal item and the marketing departments have gone nuts with not only all shades of colours, but you can now buy laptops splashed with graffiti styling much like racing cars. If colour is not important to you then black is still there, but I’d definitely recommend checking out the options. I recently got a brushed chrome look on my new Dell 4310, very sleek! But I also really like the new graffiti styles on offer.

On the move?

How often would you like to pick up your laptop and take it with you? If it’s at least once a week I’d recommend the smaller sized laptops as their design is specifically centred on portability. If portability is not so much of an issue or it’s on rare occasions then put portability down the bottom of the priority list.

Warranty is a must-have.

Out of all points listed, this is the most important and a must-have. Do not buy a laptop without having the full after sales parts and labour warranty on it for 3 years. With Dell it is the ProSupport, however other companies will have the equivalent offering on warranty as well. The cost may be a couple hundred, but this gives you the piece of mind that when you have a problem you have a number to call instantly – and they are more than happy to help you.

Arggh…low battery!

Probably the biggest complaint from laptop users is the lack of battery life. If you are going to be working off your battery often such as sitting on the couch at home or out on client sites put in the biggest battery you can. The batteries are measured in cells and most laptops come with either a 4 or 6 cell as standard. I’d upgrade this to a 9 cell, as this can allow some laptops to operate for 5 hours+ just from the battery. Again, if it’s rare you are moving the laptop around and generally have it plugged in to the wall most of the time it’s pointless upgrading the battery.

Also to consider…

Weight – Weight generally only matters to those lugging their laptops around. So it’s worth mentioning along with all other batteries, laptop batteries are heavy. So although upgrading the battery to achieve an extended power life, be aware you will add significant weight. It’s up to you what’s more important to decide the right balance between weight and battery life.
Docking stations – If you are working from both the office and home, consider putting in a docking station or port replicator at both locations. Once plugged into a docking station you can use your laptop via a full size keyboard, mouse and large LCD monitor(s). If this is important to you make sure you check your desired laptop has a supported docking station as not all do.
Webcam – Most laptops come standard with these, however some don’t and even if you don’t use one now, you’ll probably want to in the future with skype and other video chat programs.
Memory card reader – Same with the webcams, memory card readers are very common and do make it extremely easy for you to dump the photos from your flash card in your camera direct onto the computer without the need for a USB cable.
DVD burner – Some laptops don’t even come with a DVD player let alone a burner so if it’s important to you make sure you get one. The really thin laptops have no room for internal DVD burners so these days you can get by with an external one. Personally I don’t use mine much but I still prefer to have it in the laptop as I couldn’t be bothered carrying around an external one for ’just in case’.

What else?

I hope this helps you decide on your next laptop purchase. If I’ve missed something please let me know by commenting below.

Although a new release of ‘Office’ doesn’t inspire me to start doing the happy dance, (especially comparing the feature differences between 2003 to 2007), after doing some research and having a play around I’ve found Office 2010 has some pretty cool new features and it’s definitely worth checking out. However, if you’re like me and you’d rather just try it out now and read about it later, I’m giving you the opportunity right here and now to jump from reading to doing! We have the full suite of Microsoft Office 2010 available live via our CloudApp demo. Check it out here.

Ok, so if you’re reading this you’re tempted enough to at least have a look at whats on offer first before racing over to the live demo. There are quite a few new features, so I’ve condensed them down to the ones I think you’d be interested in most.

1. Send as PDF in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote and Publisher

Finally, you can send as PDF without needing Adobe Acrobat or some other third party app! You could actually access this feature in Office 2007 by downloading a plugin but it’s in Office 2010 by default. I know this will be one feature I’ll be using very often.

2. Outlook Social Connectors in Outlook

If you were thinking by ‘Social connectors’ that meant ‘connecting to social networks’ you’d be absolutely right! Since every man, woman and their dog and cats are socially networking via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others; Microsoft have added in the ability to connect into these networks via Outlook. Pretty cool eh? Once setup Outlook will grab data you’re normally accustomed to like contact details, profile pictures and status updates and uses them in various parts of the application, such as the in the People Pane and your address book. You could consider this the tip of the iceberg for social connectors as social networking is here to stay so it’ll be interesting to see this feature develop.

3. Outlook Ignore Feature

Ever joked about setting up auto-delete rules within outlook for a particular person? Well I know quite a few people who would love the new Ignore feature of Outlook 2010. The Ignore button that’s been added to Outlook allows you to get rid of conversation threads that you aren’t interested in or you are just part of the CC’d brigade that really doesn’t need to be included. It will automatically delete all messages in your Inbox that belong to the thread, and any subsequent emails relating to that thread.

4. Outlook Quick Steps

Heard about the no more than 3 clicks rule? Well another great new Outlook feature is Quick Steps. This gives you the ability to create a single click operation that will perform multiple steps for you. For example, if you find yourself constantly forwarding emails to a particular group or person instead of clicking forward and then typing the addresses into the To box, you just click the button you created eg “To current clients”, and the forwarded message appears with their addresses already entered.

5. Simultaneous editing

It is what you think, same time editing of the same file. You simply have a notification telling you who is editing what part of the file. Very handy for collaboartion on the same report or document.Word also has the ability to cache the files you work on so when you take your laptop away you can continue working on them and when you hook back into the network it will seemlessly update the networked version. Many people already achieve this this with offline files/folders but I thought it was worth mentioning.

6. Outlook SMS feature

I haven’t gone through the entire process of setting this up but I did see the option to add an SMS gateway to outlook. This will basically allow you to send out txt messages without digging your phone out of your pocket. It’ll also allow you to send SMS’s easily to multiple recipients, for example let your team know the bar is open and the drinks have started or to let a client know you are running a little late for your appointment….(cause you’re at the bar).

7. Embedded Videos in PowerPoint

Video is pretty much the standard for rich media content so it’s a wonder why embedded videos whether locally or via a webpage haven’t been implemented previously. Powerpoint 2010 also allows you powerful editing of the videos to enable you to grab just the bits you want and slot them into your presentation. It’s not something I use a lot of but when I do next I’ll be sure to be embedding some vids.

8. Broadcast Slide Show in PowerPoint

PowerPoint’s Broadcast Slideshow feature is basically webinar functionality added to a powerpoint presentation. So you no longer need Webex or Gotomeeting? With this feature you simply create a link, send it your mates and upon clicking they’ll see your presentation in unison with yours. For those quick needed conferences this feature is worth checking out.

9. Video Presentations in PowerPoint

This is probably my second favourite feature at the moment. But I could have done with it a week ago when I had to convert a Powerpoint presentation to DVD doing it the manual way of using a third party utility.This is great if you want to upload a presentation to YouTube or share your Powerpoint in a more friendly manner via video or if your mother-in-law assumed a powerpoint presentation would play on a DVD player!

So there you have it!

Hopefully there were couple new features that tempted you to do the happy dance – my favourite at the moment is the PDF feature – no more third party app for PDF creation! If you have a favourite let us know by commenting below.

And If you want to check it out in action feel free to have a look at Office 2010 live via our CloudApp demo.

Please use this guide if you wish to setup and synchronise email plus contacts and calendar entries. Do not use this guide if you already have your iPhone setup for Exchange. An iPhone can be configured for Exchange which will allow you to synchronise not only email, but contacts and calendar entries as well. This means any updates on your phone can be replicated to your mailbox and vice versa ‘over the air’ i.e. no need to plug in to your computer.

You can only setup one Exchange account on your iPhone. If you do not already have your iPhone configured with an exchange account, use this guide to setup your email for your Cloud Networks hosted email account. If you already have your iPhone configured for another Exchange account please refer to the POP Email configuration guide for iPhone. If you do not have this guide please email support@cloudnetworks.com.au to request.

Step 1: Select ‘Settings’ from the home screen of your iPhone.

Step 2: Select ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars’

Step 3: Under ‘Accounts’ select ‘Add Account’

Step 4: On the ‘Add Account’ page select ‘Microsoft Exchange’

Step 5: On the ‘New Account’ screen fill in the blank spaces with your details then hit save.
Email: The E-mail address you are sending email from, yourname@yourcompany.com.au
Domain: This is ‘hotsite’
Username: The username provided to you by Cloud Networks to enable access to your email account.
Password: The password provided to you by Cloud Networks to enable access to your email account.
Description: The E-mail address you are sending email from, yourname@yourcompany.com.au

When the correct fields are completed, click on the “Next” button in the top right corner of the screen.

Step 6: After hitting next a second field called Server will appear. In the server field enter mail.cloudnetworks.com.au then hit Next.

Step 7: Choose which type(s) of data you would like to synchronize: Mail, Contacts, and Calendars. Note that by default, only 3 days’ worth of email is synchronized. To synchronize more, go into Settings, then Mail, Contacts, Calendars, select your Exchange account, and tap on Mail days to sync.
Note that after configuring an Exchange ActiveSync account, all existing contact and calendar information on the iPhone is overwritten.

Congratulations, you’re now complete. Try sending yourself an email and see if you can receive it.

For any further assistance please contact Support.

Ever wondered if your IT is over-complicated? Well it could well be. An app for this and a server for that. Logins, permissions, workarounds and reboots. It can get very frustrating not to mention costly if things are complicated. Keeping your IT simple doesn’t take a huge amount of effort, just a bit of due diligence. Make a rushed or uninformed choice with your IT and short term, it may do you well, but long term it could become a real thorn in your side.

Why?

IT is designed to speed up your business processes and more importantly it needs to be designed to fit your business processes.  However, often IT solutions are bolted on, one after the other over months and years to address needs of the business processes on an as needs basis. Before you know it, your IT is equivalent to a big ball of band-aids resulting in an over complicated system that is as fragile as a house of cards.

Keeping IT simple unfortunately gets pushed down the priority list when it really should always be up the top. So I’ve come up with a few tips you can use to help you review what you’ve got, what you want, if you need it and how to go about choosing it.

1. Challenge the need

Firstly challenge whether you need it. Is there really a need or is it a want? What does it address? What is it going to save or put in your pocket? Is it going to be faster than doing it another way without this IT? Is it going to be compatible with your current system? Can it be done by your core system already with a change? Is it better to hire extra labour instead?

2. How you do things and why you do it that way

If you do decide there is a valid need, make sure the technology you are looking at is addressing the way you do things. Software developers have to tailor their software for the masses so look for something that is flexible, adaptable and able to meet your unique needs.

3. Develop your list of non-negotiables

Work out what your minimum requirements the software or hardware has to do for you specifically. As soon as the technology doesn’t meet one of your non-negotiables mark it off the list. This will help narrow down the list quickly and also make sure you’re not swayed by features that look fancy(not to mention add to the cost)  but don’t fit your initial core needs.

4. Get your IT support to understand your business

Ask your IT guy to help you through this process. Once they understand your business processes they can successfully apply and recommend the right move in regards to technology. If you’re willing to invest in a few R&D hours with your IT partner they’ll have the time to develop several detailed options specific to your requirements and they’ll make sure to address the impact it will have on your system overall.

5. Is it easy to use?

The software may tick all the boxes but make sure it’s efficient and easy to use. If you’re purchasing the software for several people, get them involved on the usability side of things. If the software is clunky or isn’t intuitive you are buying inefficiencies from the day you install the software.

6. Make sure it’s stable

Now this is very difficult to determine if you’ve never played with the technology for any length of time previously. I’d recommend  researching the top three picks on your shortlist by googling them. Check any hits that may come up about a review of the technology in question and see what the general consensus is. You may even find a better package recommended that you hadn’t considered.

7. Try before you buy

Get the details of some referral customers that are using the software or hardware and ask how well it works for them. Better yet, ask them if you can come over and see it in their live environment. You might even pick up some tips on how better to use it or other packages they use in conjunction with it. I’d also recommend you setup a trial copy of the software on a spare pc or cloud desktop so you can see how the software works at your leisure.

8. Less is more

I find many businesses could live off of much less software and hardware than what they seemingly require. Not only that, if they streamlined their system it would be faster, cheaper and easier to use as it’s just…simpler!

It’s simpler for your existing staff, it’s simpler for your new staff to adopt and it’s simpler for your IT partner to manage, troubleshoot and update when required. Ultimately, it means less breakdowns and more efficiency, which allows you to concentrate on your business and not your IT. 

Do you think your IT is complex?

IT systems are no different to any other systems, complicate them with lots of different parts without care and they become less efficient and break down more often. How many applications do you run and do you really need them all? Can they be consolidated? Feel free to let us know, by commenting below.

Everyone is busy, just ask them. Society is demanding more time from us, family, work, mates, work, sport, work. The line between work and play is blurring and unfortunately it’s more work less play. A lot of us are now 24/7 workers whether we like it or not…and it seems to be getting worse as there’s almost an expectation now that you have no life outside of work….its work work work and more work. Personal devices are now work devices and work devices are now personal…the iphone, blackberry, ipad and laptops, netbooks….All are portals for anyone and everyone to access our time.

Everything now revolves around computers and information

Love it or hate it for the majority of us, the reality is our work, our life, our everything revolves around computers and information…so if there are inflexibilities in your IT they will affect your time management and life in general…it will dictate how you work, when you work and time you work….but more importantly how you play, the time you play and when or if you play at all!

Some people have even forgotten how to play…We’ve all seen them, the workaholics – they can’t stand sitting still, they just can’t unwind or relax easily, they need to be doing something work related in order to chill out…play time almost seems to bore them..

It’s the 21^st century; the information age; we need to work smarter not harder or longer.

The common denominator for work is IT.

It’s time to take back control

So, is your IT supporting you? If yes, great! We’d love to hear examples of how your team benefits from this!

If not, consider getting it fixed so it is supporting your business. If you need 24/7 access then get on it and put that in place. If you need to improve response times, then create a plan and action it. If you need better security or a more reliable system then make it happen. Create your IT action plan and call a meeting with your IT guys.

It’s the little things that count

It’s the little things that count, which generally means that it’s not always going to cost a packet.

Some people work better in the mornings, some at night, some don’t work at all and some work around the clock. If you and your team have the ability to update your company information from wherever you are it’s a gimme that your system is going to be more efficient and your team will love the flexibility.

Imagine updating your timesheet from your phone

Imagine updating your timesheet from your phone on-the-road so your accounts clerk can invoice the client on same day! But more importantly you can go straight from the client to home rather than back to the office to update the system.

You may be able to be as flexible as to allow you and your team to work their 40 hours a week whenever they want. That provides an environment that encourages work/life balance! That’s real options for employees and creates valued employers.

The possibilities open up when you have no limits on your IT

Pickup the kids early, and pickup the additional hours later when more convenient.

Actually get home for dinner on time to spend with the family and then access the system online to finish that report off later that night.

Is that business trip really necessary? How about a Skype hookup or webinar?

Get out on the fairway! Your iPad is super portable.

Stay at home Mum and Dad’s can now stay in the workforce. Don’t let your new mothers leave for good and lose all that company experience.

Go on holidays. If your IT supports you, now you can!

Work hard, play hard, but definitely get some downtime and give yourself that flexibility to strike that balance.

Make your IT; a lean, mean, super flexible machine!

What does a flexible IT system mean to you?

I’d love to hear what differences a flexible IT system would make for your work/life balance. Please leave a comment below.

I should start off by saying that cloud computing is an industry, not a product. Therefore, there are many, many, many explanations to answer this question as there are many, many, many ‘flavours’ of cloud computing.

Gmail, hotmail and web hosting… All cloud computing

But broadly speaking, cloud computing is simply the delivery of computing services through the internet. So your ISP (Internet Service Provider) is a cloud computing provider. As is Hotmail, Gmail and your web host. And if you use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), that’s cloud computing too.

In other words, it’s nothing new; we’ve been doing for years!

So what’s all the hype about?

For me, the concept of cloud computing is simply:

the ability to access as many computing resources you need, from anywhere on any internet connected device, on a pay per use basis.

It’s the change from buying IT as a product to buying it as a service.

Cloud computing is like the electricity grid

In fact, the electricity grid is great analogy to cloud computing. Confused? – Bear with me…

We all know we can access electricity from the power station from anywhere, anytime from any electrical device as long as we are connected to a power point. We can access as much or as little as we want, and we only pay for what we use. Cloud computing works using the same priciple.

To really hit home what all the hype is about, we need to compare cloud computing to traditional computing, using the electricity grid analogy.

Imagine if you couldn’t plug your phone charger in at the hotel

Imagine this…Your phone charger, laptop or any electrical device in your office only accepts electricity from your office and nowhere else! Yes! Your charger, your laptop, your projector even your toaster in the office are only compatible with the electricity in your office.

So you take your phone charger with you on a business trip and as soon as you plug it in the hotel room’s power point it stalls – it’s useless – because it can’t reach your office to get your office’s electricity.

Pay-per-use doesn’t exist in traditional computing

And pay for what you use? Well that’s really non-existent in the traditional computing sense. You generally pay for your own servers and computing resources up-front, so you’re paying for capacity you may not even use in the future.

But if using cloud computing, like the electricity grid, if you have a party at your office and need more power to accommodate the lights, the stereo, the bar, the band etc, you just switch it on and you only pay for your usage that night!

Conclusion: Cloud computing is just a new name

Obviously, I’m passionate about the cloud computing industry. It’s hard not to be. It’s flexible, adaptable, scalable and more sustainable to better suit the needs of your business.

It’s called cloud computing for now, but at its current rate of evolution it’ll be back to being called the same ole ‘IT industry’ soon enough.

Can you think of a better analogy?

If you can think of a better analogy than the electricity grid, I’d love to hear it. Please comment below…

This blog will feature all things IT and Technology in general. The aim of the blog is simple – bringing to your attention something happening in IT that you may find interesting and get something out of. I’ll be putting aside the techno mumbo jumbo and geek speak for the blog, it’ll just be straight forward writing on smart IT solutions!

It will cover

• IT in general
• Cloud computing
• Tips and tricks
• Latest software and hardware technologies
• Product highlights
• Interesting articles and websites
• Proof of concepts and new ideas

Mostly, it will be business-related, but as the line between work and play continues to blur, I’ll likely find myself writing about a cool new gadget I’ve seen, a new spin on an old method or just whatever I feel like talking about that day!If you have any suggestions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment.

Enjoy!