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Over the course of the past year I tended to oscillate between having been an ardent supporter of PC-based computing applications such as Outlook or having gone gung-ho for the “cloud computing” paradigm available through various free Google apps. Sometimes I used a combination of both models. For instance, I would have my Outlook copy to Gmail. In Gmail, I would create Google Docs directly from my email. It is all so very complicated and whether going fully hard drive-based or web-based (e.g., “in the cloud”) there are benefits and drawbacks to each system. A well engineered website might bridge the gap and in this posting I want to discuss how you might do that.
Cloud computing allows you access to your data wherever you might have an internet connection. Hard-drive based applications grant you absolute control over your data and put security in your own hands. Would you really want all your sensitive customer information to be available out there in a Google Doc? What if Google was down. What if the the site you were using to store you docs was down. Then again, what good does the data do you if you are in Singapore and your computer is in Pittsburgh?
It got me thinking. Perhaps a better strategy might be labeled “situational computing.” This could entail the tactic of employing PC-based applications when they seem to fit the task better and then switching to Google Docs or other web-based applications as the itinerant nature of one’s projects necessitate. Sounds reasonable, but such equivocation could be merely mindless and no long term solution at all. Perhaps what we need is a model that delivers both the benefits of a hard drive and cloud based applications at the same time?
This is where I discovered a well engineered website might pull such a rabbit out of the hat. You see the beauty of a well engineered website—a website that has both the tools to deliver results backed with a comprehensive strategy on integrating and using the tools the website provides—is that it acts like a “cloud” that travels with you yet gives you the benefits of essentially a hard drive-based web application. After all, you are responsible for the web server and physical computer that runs it. You get all the benefits of being serenaded with the harp strings of high spinning hard drives while wafting about your business world like a feather. Viola!
A website is essentially a hard drive-based cloud that can follow you wherever you go. It is not a shared cloud, it is your cloud (unless you want to share it). How do you achieve that? Retooling your website as a project management application is one way you might achieve this model.
I now use my website as a project management tool. There are some good open-source applications on the market for doing so. Since my website is Joomla-driven, I use ProjectFork. Project Fork allows me to create project spaces for an unlimited amount of projects. I also have forums, notes, file managers, the ability to set and track project milestones; you name it. I can make this application as secure as I want to on my website. Then, when I am off to who knows where, I can access all my data knowing full well that the buffoon solely responsible for its security is me.
Note: ProjectFork is developed by ProjectFork.net. The lead programmer and developer is a fellow by the name of Tobias Kuhn.
I highly recommend this extensions for your Joomla-based website.
The great thing is that now my website, ScratchWriting.com, which I very much build and maintain on my home computer, has become my cloud computing solution with the benefits of hard drive.
I am not advocating that everyone should have their own website just so that you too can have the benefits of your own “computing cloud” that follows you. After all, securing your website is then your responsibility. I am merely putting forth that if you are like me and have wrestled with the hard-drive and cloud computing based models, then it could be the perfect time to, eh, get your head IN the clouds and take your hard drive based applications with you.
Interested in adding the ProjectFork extension to your site? Use our contact form and I'll be in touch. |
