Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA
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3 edits | I got bit by this
For a while I ran my small biz with Quickbooks Online. At first it was great because for a cheap montly fee we could access the data and do business from any IE6 equipped Mac or PC, up to 3 simultaneous users. I have 6 people who regularly use QB but rarely did 3 need to at the same time so this was going to save me a small fortune not having to buy an upgrade 6 QB Pro licenses plus a small server w/ BU.
But shortly after signing up, we started seeing the outages. They were pretty infrequent but always happened at the worst time when my guys were trying to invoice a super hot job in time for UPS pickup.
After fighting it for a number of months I gave up and shelled out for 6 new QB2K8 licenses and a weak Winserver (since Intuit in their infinite wisdom now requires a dedicated host for their hosting software). It's a good thing I was only 1/2 stupid and didn't buy into the whole Oracle SB online sales pitch or I would have been seriously screwed trying to migrate back to my trusty FileMaker and OS X server. |
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voipdabbler
join:2006-04-27
Kalispell, MT
| IMHO, "cloud computing" is a fad that will fail within the next 3 years. Why? Large enterprises aren't going to touch it--thankfully, there are some existing legal standards that require handling of data in certain ways to protect data, such as financial information (I can only hope those standards get strengthened. Then, you have the added responsibility of proper handling to maintain potential privileges for certain information, should it ever be sought in discovery during litigation. You also must properly handle your intellectual property to be able to protect it. Most corporate clients that I have worked with just aren't going to park their data anywhere other than in-house servers.
Without enterprises coming onboard, this will remain a niche market with individual consumers as clients. Even with ad-based revenue, for this type of service to survive it will need to charge those individual consumers at some point, and, well I don't see most people being willing to pay. (I also suspect you're going to see data emerging about identity theft via hacking of these type of services.) |
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NetAdmin
CCNA
join:2008-05-22
| said by voipdabbler  :IMHO, "cloud computing" is a fad that will fail within the next 3 years. Why? Large enterprises aren't going to touch it--thankfully, there are some existing legal standards that require handling of data in certain ways to protect data, such as financial information (I can only hope those standards get strengthened. Without enterprises coming onboard, this will remain a niche market with individual consumers as clients. You've completely forgotten about small business, of which there are, from the number I last heard, several million. While you correctly point out that large business won't adopt cloud computing widely, small businesses are going to be the biggest users of it. Right off the bat, the can save a good bit on upfront licensing fees. It also makes life much easier when adding new users and systems as the business grows - all the new machine needs is an OS and a web browser.
However, for cloud computing to really catch on, there needs to be a vast improvement in the ability of the applications offered to match the performance and flexibility of applications that typically run on a desktop - databases, spreadsheets, etc.
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Over ten plus years of carrying The Clue Bat... |
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AnonProxy
Proxy of Anon
Premium
join:2001-05-12
ß | reply to Dogfather
I would wonder if they did this on purpose, if by chance there was a threshold of use that put you into the "mess with him" queue so that you buy the software. |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | reply to Dogfather
A virtual machine might make sense for you. |
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Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | reply to AnonProxy
I don't think so. I think they just had issues that plague all services (whether it's them, online banking or any other site). |
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Dogfather
Premium
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA | reply to SLD
I thought about that but saw one of the dirt cheap Dell server deals in the hot deals forum. We already had a W2K3 SBS license so it seem the easiest route. |
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