Well, What’a You Know, You Can Take It With You, Software as a Service

From the first time I used a computer, the ability to take your stuff with you was a very appealing  functionallity. When your work  took you across town or across the world, how could you take along your electronic files and access them quickly? There were external hard drives, but you had to find something to plug them into, both power and data; laptops, ah, the Osborne; floppy disks; etc.

As internet technology has progressed, the ability for getting to your stuff has also improved. You can link up if you have an IP address, in most cases. But this method has its downsides, and right when you need access the most, Murphy’s Law kicks in, and you are locked out. This is possible with any system you use, but free online sites offering both application software for producing and editing documents, and online space to store/retrieve them, now this is handy. We see lots of examples of this fast, handy, use in class when students respond to a question posed, with instant document production for public display.

Google Docs seems to have its oar deepest in the water for the moment. Their interface is easy to access, use, and it stores you production. Yahoo offers MyDrive through Yahoo mail, this is a third party application. It too is easy to use, but the offer to upgrade for a small fee shows up quickly. Zohois another offering for these services, it looks good, the offer to purchase an upgrade is here also.

MS Office 2010 Link

Microsoft is scheduled to enter this market soon. I expect they will do their best to put the full functionality of MS Office online, of course for a price. One of the jobs of a network administrator is keeping up with licensing and software installations on the network. If top of the line software, like MS Office can be handled from a single location while ending all of the related administrative tasks, at a good price, I vote in favor.

Useful, free, and dependable, these are key to picking a portable document solution. This will work for most situations, but if you need more software capability on occasion, then you source a more traditional set of tools for that special job, like the ones installed on your computer.

Another consideration, when deciding on a protable document solution, is consistency. It is a good Idea to decide which provider to use and stay with them, you can find your stuff easier if it is all in one place, all of the time, at least until the provider goes under.

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