For Office 365 subscribers, whether personal or business, it gets even better. From now on they receive a massive 1TB of storage. To put it in context, that amount of storage would cost US $9.99 a month with Google, whereas Dropbox charges US $9.99 a month for just 100GB. When you consider that an Office 365 subscription includes a full copy of Microsoft Office as well, it is a tremendous price.
Competition in the cloud market continues to hot up. Microsoft have increased the amount of free space with OneDrive to 15GB, thereby matching Google Drive and greatly surpassing Dropbox, which offers only 2GB of free space (although it is possible to claim extra free space with Dropbox).
For Office 365 subscribers, whether personal or business, it gets even better. From now on they receive a massive 1TB of storage. To put it in context, that amount of storage would cost US $9.99 a month with Google, whereas Dropbox charges US $9.99 a month for just 100GB. When you consider that an Office 365 subscription includes a full copy of Microsoft Office as well, it is a tremendous price. Microsoft have released the much awaited version of Office for the iPad, consisting of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and, er, OneNote. It is based on Office 2013, modified to make it easier to use in a touchscreen environment. However, the menus have been somewhat simplified. For people who do not have or want Office 365, the web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available by signing into OneDrive. Interestingly, at the time of writing they seem to offer more capabilities that the official Office for iPad... Office 365 is Microsoft's combined offering of it's ubiquitous Office software (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc) combined with online services such as email and storage. Traditionally, Office software has been purchased but Office 365 is a subscription service, paid monthly or annually. In effect, the software is being rented. What are the advantages of this? Firstly, it removes the need for large upfront purchases, potentially improving cash flow. Secondly, it is flexible as you can add, remove or reallocate licenses. Thirdly, it is always up-to-date, providing the latest versions of the software. Besides the software, there is corporate-level email, calendaring, collaborative software and websites, operated by Microsoft. As Microsoft is such a huge company it backs these with massive resources, ensuring the highest levels of availability and performance. Office 365 comes in different flavours. Office 365 Home Premium is intended for home users and allows Office to be installed on 5 computers. This is the full version of Office, comparable to Office Professional. Office Professional usually costs around £300 to buy whereas Office 365 Home Premium is just £79.99 a year, pretty much making it a no-brainer for a household with multiple computers. Besides the main software, it also provides monthly Skype credit, access to web versions of Office, plus up to 100GB online storage on SkyDrive. When you consider that a 100GB Dropbox account alone is some £70 a year this really helps put things in perspective. The next version is Office 365 Small Business, aimed at businesses of up to 25 users. This is really an online service as it does not include the Office software itself (although does allow use of the cut-down web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint). Rather, it provides email, calendaring, conferencing and both private and a public-facing website. Office 365 Small Business is of most interest to small companies wanting a professional email system and who have maybe already purchased the Office software or do not use it. For instance, many small businesses still run an in-house email system established years ago or use services provided by relatively small ISPs; both of these things are less tenable these days and Office 365 provides an excellent alternative with email that works with Outlook, webmail and with tablets and Smartphones. An additional consideration is that Office 365 mailboxes offer use capacity. It costs £39.60 per user per year. Office 365 Small Business Premium is the same but includes the full Office suite software. Again intended at small businesses with up to 25 users, it is priced at £100.80 per user per year. Both Small Business and Small Business Premium can also be paid for on a monthly basis. Finally there is Office 365 Midsize Business, slightly more expensive, available for up to 300 users. All business versions can be managed from Windows Server Essentials, making it a natural companion, with Office 365 Midsize Business featuring Active Directory integration with Windows Server. Microsoft's cloud service - SkyDrive - is shortly to be no more, but will be instantly re-incarnated as OneDrive. This is as a result of a court case between BSkyB and Microsoft which the latter lost. BSkyB Group - more commonly known as Sky in the UK - considered the name 'SkyDrive' an infringement of copyright and that people might believe it was something to do with them. The judge agreed, so Microsoft were ordered to rename it and they have now announced that it will shortly become OneDrive. It is a rebranding exercise only; everything will work as before without change and no data will be lost. If your computer is ever stolen, packs up or needs to have Windows reinstalled, then you are going to lose data. You can always buy a new laptop for a few hundred pounds, but what price can you put on your wedding photos, pictures of the grandchildren or your customer list and accounts? As they say: priceless. In order to avoid this when catastrophe strikes (and unfortunately, it is often a case of when rather than if) you need to backup your computer on a regular basis. There are several ways of doing this. For instance, it is possible to buy an external USB hard drive for about £50 upwards -- plug it in and it will automatically backup things. Or, a USB memory stick for about £10 will be sufficient for holding copies of your most important stuff. There is a totally free way of doing backups, too. And it's not just a case of the cost -- in many ways it is a better solution altogether. And that is to use the Cloud. Cloud computing still means different things to different people, but in this case it refers to the storage that you get with free services such as Microsoft SkyDrive, Google Drive or Dropbox. Think of these as being like a USB drive somewhere in the sky; a USB drive that can never be lost or stolen. Having signed up with one of them (other services are available but these are Big Three), you download a small program onto your computer that creates a folder. This folder is then automatically 'mirrored' to the Cloud; anything you place in the folder is quickly uploaded to your private storage area. So, backing up a file or folder consists of nothing more than dragging a copy to your SkyDrive/Google/Dropbox folder. Or, you could choose to keep your most important documents in that folder to begin with. If, say, your laptop had to be wiped and reinstalled, you simply download SkyDrive/Google/Dropbox again and it will automatically repopulate it from the Cloud copy! Another bonus is that these services are also available for most Smartphones and tablets. So, keep your photographs in your (say) Dropbox and you can also view them from your iPhone and iPad. You can also access them from any computer by logging on to a special website with your user ID and password. Choosing between SkyDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox isn't difficult as they are much of a muchness. Dropbox has been around the longest, is well regarded and has the benefit (to some people) of NOT being Microsoft or Google. You only get 2GB of storage space to begin with, although each time you refer someone else you get another 500MB, up to a total of 18GB. Google gives 15GB; its integration with other services such as Google Mail and Picasa makes it a good choice for those with a GMail address. Microsoft's SkyDrive gives 7GB of free storage; one very powerful feature is that it includes web-based versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint so you can view and edit documents from the website even if you don't have those applications on your computer. In all cases, it is possible to purchase more storage space on a monthly or annual basis. However, keep in mind that even the 2GB of Dropbox is typically enough to hold 1,000 or photographs. Plus, of course, you could sign up for all 3 services, which would give you 24GB (15+7+2) of storage. It is worthwhile checking these free services. Even if you already have a backup solution in place, they can provide a useful second tier or 'backup to the backup' for key documents and photos. If you enjoyed this article you might also enjoy http://ctacs.weebly.com/1/post/2012/04/every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining.html and http://ctacs.weebly.com/1/post/2012/10/private-cloud-vs-public-cloud.html For the past couple of years, most new computers running Windows 7 have come equipped with Microsoft Office Starter Edition. This is a free version of Office consisting of cut-down versions of Word and Excel - think of it as Office-lite. Although missing some features, they provide more than enough funtionality for most home users. If insufficient, a regular copy of Office needs to be purchased, although by not doing so you can save money. But no longer, as Office Starter Edition is now dead. The death notice was actually posted as far back as June, although the implications have only recently filtered through. Specifically, Windows 8 machines do not include Office Starter. So, what are the options? Microsoft do still offer a free alternative in the form of Office Web Apps. These are versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint that operate within a browser. To use them you need a Microsoft account (almost obligatory these days) and Skydrive; having logged in you are then presented with what appear to be very cut-down versions of the software - Office Extra-Lite if you will. However, provided your computer is modern and you have a reasonable internet connection they work well enough at a pinch, but not so much that you wouldn't want something more substantial. The obvious solution is to buy a proper copy of Office. This comes in a number of variants, but for just over £100 you can buy Office 2010 Home and Student Edition. This consists of Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and may be installed on up to three computers in one household. The proviso is that it may not be used for commercial purposes; if you are in a business then you are supposed to buy a business edition. This includes additional programs (most notably Outlook) but is considerably more expensive. Office 2010 is due to be replaced by Office 2013 in the near future; if you buy it at the time of writing then you will be entitled to a free upgrade. However, there are plenty of free alternatives available, programs that are behave the same as (and in some cases look similiar to) Microsoft Office. The best known is LibreOffice; an alternative is the closely-related OpenOffice. If you are accustomed to older versions of Microsoft Office (e.g. Office 2003) and do not like the Ribbon interface introduced with Office 2007, you may even prefer them as they look like old versions. There is no catch and nothing dodgy - these programs really are totally free. The idea of Cloud Computing is now well established amongst many computer users. Definitions of what constitutes Cloud Computing vary, but for most people it is above providing storage in the internet - a safe place where data and backups can be stored. Closely related to this is the idea of syncronisation and replications; as in, store something on the cloud and it is available to all your devices. Or in very simple language: it is liking having a big USB memory stick somewhere in the sky. The most popular cloud services for individuals and small businesses are Apple's iCloud, Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3 and Dropbox. In one sense, they are much of a muchness as they all do pretty much the same thing, with the amount of storage space and how much (if anything) you have to pay for it. All of these services are Public Clouds; that is, they are available to members of the public and are operated by commerical companies looking for customers amongst the general public. There are numerous advantages in using a public cloud. For a start, they are provided by enormous organisations that have the funding and expertise to provide a safe, reliable service that is always available. Also, there are considerable volumes of scale: with tens of millions of customers, they are able to provide a low cost service (as mentioned above, it can even be free). But, there are some disadvantages with public clouds. First, there is the question of trust: just how safe is your data? This doesn't just mean safe from prying eyes (hackers), it also means safe from the provider of the service. Some cloud operators, for instance Microsoft and Google, state in their terms and conditions that they reserve the right to look at and use your data. Now, you might expect that they need to take reasonable precautions to guard against the storage of material that is clearly illegal (terrorist manuals, pirated software and movies, certain types of pornography), and to provide controlled access to the security services under proper safeguards. But do you really want them trawling through your accounts or customer database or other documents to build up a profile of you and your business? Do you want one of your photographs subsequently appearing in an advertisement somewhere without your knowledge? Or to be bombarded with advertisements based on what they have determined to be your interests? All of these eventualities are catered for in the T&C of some of the big players. Secondly, what if the cloud provider changes the rules? That is, you might be very happy with the way their system operates in terms of pricing, performance, device availability and user interface. But one day you might find that they have changed things, that the system operates differently and that certain facilities have been withdrawn or your operating system is no longer supported (example: Apple's iCloud used to work with Windows XP. It no longer does so). It is unlikely that any of the big names will suddenly cease trading, but what if one of them decides that it no longer wants to be in the cloud business - what happens to your data then? Thirdly, although most cloud providers give some free storage, it may not be enough for you and the cost of additional space may be more than you are prepared to pay. For instance, Apple provide 5GB of storage for free (actually enough for a lot of people) but if you need more - say 50GB - then it is £70 a year. The answer to all of these questions is: a Private Cloud. This is one that you run yourself, one that is totally under your control (Your cloud. Your rules). As the data stays with you, you can feel secure that it is safe from prying eyes. And you can use it as much as you want, without any additional charges. Suddenly need 100GB rather than 5GB? No problem. Now, you might think that setting up a private cloud is something well beyond the capabilities of the average person or small business and, a few years ago, this was certainly the case. However, most modern NAS (Networked Attached Storage) boxes have the capability built-in. It's simply a matter of ticking a few boxes and answering one or two questions and you are up and running. Even consumer grade NAS boxes - the ones that sell for little more than £100 in the likes of PC World, Comet and Maplin have this capability. On prosumer (professional consumer) or small business NAS from the likes of Synology and QNAP, these private cloud facilities are every bit as sophisticated as what you get from Microsoft and Google et al, but without the limitations of price and capacity. Are there any pitfalls to be wary of? Yes. Because your NAS is connected to the internet then potentially it is susceptible to the activities of hackers, although realistically it is not much different than having, say, your normal computer connected and your probably don't worry too much about that. However, you should have a router with a decent firewall, avail yourself of any security features offered by the NAS box, plus use proper passwords on your accounts and change them from time to time. We would normally recommend prosumer equipment, for example Billion routers and Synology NAS Microsoft's free email service - Hotmail - is one of the most popular email systems around. Since Microsoft bought it in the late 1990's and made it it's own, it has attracted more than 350 million users. But times change: nowadays, someone signing up for a new email account is probably more likely to go for Google's Gmail system. And, having done so, they are more likely to start using Google's cloud-based service Google Drive (formerely Google Docs) rather than Microsoft's own cloudy services of SkyDrive and Office365. In addition, Hotmail looks - how shall we say? - rather clunky and old fashioned in 2011. Time for Microsoft to do something about it! What they have done is launch a new web-based email service, called Outlook. Despite the name, it's nothing to do with Microsoft's email system of the same name, the use of which is ubiquotous in the corporate environment. If you have an existing Hotmail address you can use that, else you can sign up for a new email address at the website (www.outlook.com). The initial feedback from 'techie' websites is mixed, but we find it quite good. The screens are clean and uncluttered, have little advertising and everything is quick and responsive (whether this remains the case when hundreds of millions of people are using it remains to be seen of course). The interface borrows from Metro, the interface used in Windows 8, so is quite stark but is used to good effect here. If you don't like it you can switch back to Hotmail, at least for now (longer term, Hotmail will be discontinued). But we rather think you might be... There are literally hundreds of thousands of apps available for the Apple iPad, ranging from the stunning through to the 'what a waste of time' category. Everyone will have their favourites; here is a selection of ten top ones in no particular order that you might find useful. Some will be of particular interest to those working in IT.
1. Kindle (free) Although Apple have their own beautifully done iBooks app, Kindle remains far and away the most popular ebook platform. Amazon's Kindle reader for the iPad does exactly what you'd expect and, with deep black text on a perfectly white background, looks far more like a real book than a physical Kindle ever could. 2. BBC iPlayer (free) The ubiquitous iPlayer lets you catch-up on BBC programmes plus watch live TV. A very nice feature is the integrated TV guide, showing what is on. Don't forget that watching video uses a lot of data, so you'll only want to use this when you have a wi-fi connection. Or if you're desperate. And rich. 3. Skype (free) Quite simply the best implementation of Skype which is out there. 4. SkyDrive (free) Microsoft's SkyDrive allows you to store your data on the cloud, from where you can access it from any PC or Mac. This app brings that capability to the iPad. Fully integrated with viewers for popular file formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, JPEG, PDF etc). You can also play MP3 files stored on your SkyDrive, giving an alternative to iTunes and iCloud. 5. FileBrowser (£2.99) The Holy Grail. Like having Windows Explorer or Mac Finder on your iPad so you can access folders and files stored on your computers, servers, NAS drives etc. Many popular documents and media formats can be accessed. Possibly one for the enthusiast but great if you are one! 6. Google Earth (free) Google's ever popular application for exploring the World from the comfort of your armchair. Go to places you'll never ever go and see, fly over them and explore. Great app. 7. PS Express (free) Adobe's PhotoShop Express allows you to perform basic editing and adjustment of images on your iPad. Not really a cutdown version of PhotoShop, but very useful nevertheless. 8. 2X Client (free) This is a RDP (Remote Desktop) client that enables you to connect to Windows file servers. If you work in IT then you want this one as it's by far and away the best implementation. 9. GarageBand (£2.99) Apple's own acclaimed GarageBand app lets you play a wide variety of instruments. Even if you're not musically talented you'll still love this. If you are, it's like having your own recording studio... for just £2.99! Quite stunning. 10. Epic Citadel (free) Not really a useful app as it doesn't really do anything. It's basically a showcase for a games company and consists of a 3D walkthrough through a medieval village. The graphics are absolutely stunning, making it a superb demo. Chances are that you have a USB memory stick. You might keep your most important documents on it, or backup copies of important things, or photos. If you take it with you wherever you go, you can plug it into just about any computer and access your stuff. Now imagine the same facility, only without the memory stick. Instead of a memory stick you store your files on the internet - on a secure server operated by someone like Microsoft or Google. That, in a nutshell, is what cloud computing is about for most people.
Cloud computing has been around for a number of years at this point, growing slowly (and in the interests of fair disclosure, we should mention that CTACS has been promoting and supporting it since 2008). But this week the stakes have been greatly upped, as Google have finally launched (sort of) their long rumoured Google Drive and Microsoft have revamped their SkyDrive service. Both of these services give you private space on the internet, along with the ability to 'sync' your data across multiple computers, plus access it from a Smartphone. Not that they are the only players in town: other big names are Apple with their iCloud and the well-known Dropbox service that uses Amazon's S3 cloud. Plus there are a myriad of smaller players. Most of these services operate in a similar way. You sign up with one of them; all of them offer free accounts with a limited amount of storage. If you outgrow it, you can buy more on a pay monthly or pay annually basis. Actually, the limited amount of storage is not that limited: with Dropbox you get an initial 2GB, iCloud gives you 5GB, Google Drive gives 5GB and Microsoft SkyDrive gives 7GB. It has been estimated that less 1% of users get anywhere near these volumes of data, so it's quite generous by 2012 standards. You may not actually need to sign up either; for instance, if you have a Hotmail or live@edu account then you've automatically got SkyDrive. Your space can be accessed from a browser, from an app on a Smartphone, or by installing an application on your PC. Browser access is universal - go to any internet connected computer in the world, login to the website and there is your stuff. Depending on the service, you may be able to view it in situ, or optionally download it onto that computer. Both SkyDrive and Google Drive have embedded applications so you can edit the documents directly on the cloud; with SkyDrive you have the web versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, so it's all very familiar(ish). Smartphone apps are usually more limited, but can be expected to improve with time. As Google are also responsible for Android, used by most of the world's Smartphone manufacturers, a good experience with Google Drive can be expected. However, accessing files from a browser is, well, rather clunky. What people really want is something that is or behaves as though it was a normal disk drive, so they can open files directly from Word or Excel, or view files with Windows Explorer, or drag files on and off it. In other words, something familiar that doesn't require them to learn any new ways of working. There have been several attempts to achieve this in recent years, with varying degrees of success. The problem is that the Internet is still relatively slow, tens or hundreds of times slower than a real disk drive. Try and save a 10 MB PowerPoint file onto the cloud and it will typically take several minutes rather than several seconds. To get around that requires a piece of client software for the computer that lets you save instantly to a local drive or folder, which is then uploaded or synced transparently in the background to the cloud. The fact that things are stored on the cloud now allows for another possibility – syncing from multiple computers. What this means is that you can install the client computer on all of your computers, make a change on one of them and have it automatically reflected on the other computers. This is of great benefit to anyone who has a laptop or netbook as well as a desktop computer in the home or office: far more convenient and reliable than having to worry about copying things to a USB memory drive and then worrying about whether you’ve got the most up-to-date version and so on. It’s not a coincidence that Microsoft have updated their SkyDrive service this week – it was specifically timed to take a bit of shine off the announcement of Google Drive, which launched the following day. And, both of these vendors clearly have Dropbox in their sights as the common ‘enemy’. It’s too early to comment on how good Google Drive, as the launch is protracted and at the time of writing not too many people are able to get their hands on it. Plus there is some early controversy: Google’s T&C’s state that they have the right to use stuff you store with them, plus the Chinese government have banned it altogether for now. However, SkyDrive is now a very polished product that works very well, both as a sync and backup tool and as a means of sharing files with other people. The integration of SkyDrive with the forthcoming Windows 8 would seem to imply a strong future for it. Maybe clouds do, after all, have silver linings. |
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