21st Century Sales

Anyone every say to you, "You're living in the clouds"?  I'd say that's not a complement in that it suggests that you're not in touch with reality. 

I like to think I'm in touch with reality, even though I do spend a fair bit of time trying out new and innovative things that, well, frankly, don't quite work yet. Am I living in the clouds?  I prefer to say I'm an early adopter.

But that's not the point of this thought.  I've made a conscious decision to live in "The Cloud" (note use of singular rather than more abstract plural.)  "The Cloud" is not a new condo development in a high rise tower.  What it is exactly remains to be determined, much like "love" or "Web 2.0", but from my perspective, it means doing all of my computer work through a browser.

I started living in the cloud in earnest when Google introduced Google Aps.  (One might argue that I first moved to the cloud when I sparked-up a Hotmail account about a coon's age ago, or when I started using a wiki to manage activities for a not-for-profit board, but these were more like visits than moving in.)  It has taken a lot of effort to go from using familiar applications such as Microsoft Word or Excel to less feature-rich applications provided by Google.  I still have to use PC-based applications a lot.  But as of today, I am going to look to the cloud first and use the other aps as a last resort.

Why bother?  I think it's the way to go!  No more sending attachments using markup mode... I just send a link and ask the person to collaborate.  No more worries about software installations or updates... I leave that to the developers of the application so all I have to worry about is remembering my username and password.  No more worries about synchronizing desktop, notebook, PDA or all of the users in my company.

Living in the cloud is a big part of my book-to-be, because just like me, growing businesses just want tools that help them do what they do faster or cheaper.  I'll aim to share my favorite cloud applications here... but had better get back to work 'cause I just started with Sitemasher, a business that provides cloud-based web development!