Small Business Tech

As more of us use online software applications such as Yahoo mail or Google mail or Google Docs the questions and concerns about safety come up. This is a common discussion among not only IT people, but also among business and even casual users. Peter Nulty of Wells Fargo recently had an discussion about the subject and his first question was about security. There are three main concerns that come to mind.

1. Accessibility - Will we always be able to access our data when we need it?
2. Security - Will our data be protected from prying eyes?
3. Exit Strategy - What if the provider goes out of business?

Accessibility is usually stated in the service level agreement. Keep in mind that often quoted 99.9% up time does not mean all the time. If you do the math that level of service could equal up to some serious downtown:

Number of Minutes For Given Period
Day Week Month Year
1.44 10.08 43.2 525.6

This level of service could result in up to 8.76 hours of downtime per year. You could lose slightly more than a workday of service. On the plus side it is statistically impossible that your downtime would happen on a business day and encompass the entire time from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Security is more important than ever. Security of data and even data stored online is the responsibility of two parties. It is your providers and your responsibility. The provider should store your data in a hardened data center with around the clock monitored physical security. The stream of data should also be encrypted. Most studies of big name application and storage providers have demonstrated security measures that far outweigh the security found at even the largest enterprises.

Your responsibility falls in the areas of strong access controls, good password policy, and using secure networks. Be sure that each user as a separate login and password. This way you can more easily track data changes and more easily make personnel changes. You might also be able to set access rights based on each users identity. Also do not fall short in choosing passwords. Choose random strings of letters, numbers, and symbols that are at least eight characters long. Always consider the network that you are using to access your data. Try not to access sensitive data on public non-encrypted networks such as those found in coffee shops and etc.

In this economy it is more important than ever to have an exit strategy. It has been discussed that like many other types of businesses that not all online application providers will survive this economic downturn. You should be aware during the evaluation stage what mechanisms are in place to migrate your data to a different provider or even your own premises if necessary. Nothing would be chilling than the thought of going to the provider web site one day to find an apology about their recent closure.

Labels: Cloud Computing, Google Docs, Remember The Milk, SaaS, thin client, zoho

Google announced earlier this week that they are killing off some services and stopping development on others. One of the no-more-development victims is Google Notebook. I have used Notebook longer than just about any service outside of Gmail. I saw this coming. There has been very little if any new developments on Notebook for some time. The good news is that Google has stated that they will continue the service for those that have already used it. It is closed to any new users.

Zoho has announced that their notebook application can import Google Notebook data. The Zoho offering is also much more feature rich than Google's product. I do use Zoho on a limited basis, so I might be tempted to try the product.

Labels: Google, zoho

As I have posted before, I am becoming more of a fan of Zoho and their suite of business applications.

Robert Scoble of Fast Company has an in-depth interview with Raju Vegesna who is referred to as a Zoho Evangelist. Robert Scoble, a former Microsoft employee, asks many questions comparing MS Office to the Zoho applications. They also broach the subject of storing your data on some unknown server with an relatively unknow company.

Labels: Microsoft, Office, Scoble, zoho

I have spent the last couple of weeks using Zoho Spreadsheets to keep a couple lists. I wish I had a more calculation demanding sheet to try, but I have not had an application recently.

If you are not familiar with Zoho, it is a collection of online applications including spreadsheet, word processor, and many more. It is similar to Google Docs, but has many more applications.

If you are keeping simple lists such as expenses or such the spreadsheet application works well. One complaint that I could offer is the ability to freeze header rows. This can be done in Excel as well as Google Docs spreadsheets. A review of the forums finds that many users have requested the feature. It seems as though the design team is unable to add the feature without a major code change.

One advantage that Zoho has over Google Docs is auto complete of cells. Excel and Zoho both will complete a cell if the information that you type is the same as a cell in the same column. At one time Google Docs had auto complete, but it was disabled by user request in May '08. I am unsure why it was causing problems for some, but Google is trying to bring it back as an optional feature.

As I continue to use the Zoho suite of applications, I will keep the blog updated with my experiences.

Update: Ramesh explains freezing headers...

Thanks Curtis for trying out Zoho Sheet and writing about it. We will definitely support freeze headers. We have already started on the alternate design, and it would be better to do the implementation in the new design. The new design will give more excel-like experience as well as save us duplicate effort.

Keep using Zoho and get back to us support at zoho dot com for any assistance.

Labels: Excel, Google Docs, Office, spreadsheet, zoho

I promised earlier this month to begin using Zoho products and doing a write-up.

At times I feel a little guilty about looking at a product or service quickly, and sometimes just missing the point or some great features. I am taking my time in going through the Zoho suite. I am currently using the word processor and spreadsheet applications a couple of times a week. I will post some thoughts soon.

Labels: zoho

I have embraced cloud computing fully. I manage most of documents online using Google Docs and all of my finances are managed online using a couple of services. Google has been making the most noise in the cloud-computing space with their suite including word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software. Other well-known players include Remember The Milk and the suite available from 37signals.

One company that has been quietly building a stunning collection of applications is Zoho. They now offer an impressive array of software including office applications, invoicing, project management, and customer relationship management, database, and more. They have formed world-wide alliance partnerships around the globe to assist small business with using their products. They seem much more serious than others about developing a cloud computing business beyond the geek crowd.

The latest addition to Zoho is the ability to sign-in using your Google or Yahoo credentials, so you will have one less user name and password to remember.

In the coming weeks, we are going to dig more deeply into each of the Zoho applications and compare functionality with other online-based products.

Labels: Cloud Computing, Google Docs, Remember The Milk, zoho