More and more "The Cloud" looks like the easier alternative for data storage. It is just another way we can hold someone or no one else responsible for something that is ours. Recently a CPA suggested that I switch to an online version of the accounting software my business was using.
Like many things in life, it is cheaper this month to "rent" than to buy. For $39 a month I could get software that I could download for $99. Ok so month one I pay $39, and keep $60 in my wallet. The next month, I pay another $39 and keep $21, but then the third month I am now $18 behind and each month, I get another $39 behind the financial curve.
The truly rich rent nothing and buy everything. Looking at the accounting software option, you can quickly see that the software company is getting pretty rich because they own it and other people rent it.
My next concern is simply: What am I really doing with my data?
Am I just storing my data or sharing it? If the data sits in my office, the little green light on my server tells me it is there doing fine. The CD on the shelf and the one I take home make me feel better about my data being there in the morning.
I did look at "renting" the online version of the software but I found two things. First the EULA made my eyes cross and there is another company that offers just about all the same features for just $19 a month. I discovered a couple of features that even my "purchased" version didn't have.
What I was trying to find before my eyes crossed while reading the EULA was an answer about what happens to my data if they get bought or the CEO goes nuts with company money and they go out of business? What if I sell the company and get audited two years later? Would I be able to get the data?
I never got to the answer if it was in the EULA, and decided the $99 download only version was the quick and easy way to upgrade for the year. A little more background is probably due here. I was using a 2009 version of the software. One feature was going to go away in May. When I sent my files to my CPA for my 2011 taxes, he couldn't open the file or make changes because my software version was too old. That is why I started looking.
As soon as I upgraded the software, I got a popup asking me to "share how I use" the software. I started thinking, if they know how I use the software and what is in the data, who is really running my accounting? The problem I have is that "they" aren't going to have to sit with the IRS when something goes wrong.
The more I looked at the accounting software the more I started to wonder about anything else stored in "the cloud". I mean if Facebook shuts down and my pictures disappear, I will probably live without them being online just fine. If LinkedIn shuts down and my business life story is erased from their servers, I probably wouldn't know for a few days at least. Just for fun I have copies of the good pictures on my little home server.
For now, I'll keep "buying" storage devices for my home and office. At least I know where they are. Anyone else have any thoughts on "the cloud'?
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Simple Lesson of the week for better marketing
This is a very embarrassing blog to write. Twice this month my website went down and my phone number quit working.
Ah Technology.....
Now we all have things happen where a website might not work, or a phone number goes out of service for a little while and we fix it and move on. These were both internal technology oversights, and that is why they are embarrassing.
In order to help us troubleshoot a website, I gave a vendor access to our servers. Not knowing that we hosted more than 100 websites on that server alone, they uploaded a file to the main folder. All of the websites quit working and no body knew it.
Thankfully, I pay for a monitoring service that randomly checks all of our sites for errors each day. I get an email right to my phone when the site is found to be down. I don't know how many customers found our website down and got a 404 page not found error or a 500 server error. It really doesn't matter if it was one. That one could have been our next big client.
The phones were another issue all together. We buy banks of phone numbers to track add campaigns. Our main number is in one of those blocks of numbers. Unlike a regular phone number we "buy" these blocks each year. This year, for whatever reason, one block didn't get paid for and our number was in that block.
I am glad to say it was only the block of numbers for our company, and no customers lost a call, but again how many calls did we lose? Fortunately some vendors had my home number and called me to make sure I was OK. That is the value of a good vendor relationship. I never call my office, so it could have been weeks before I knew. You can't fix that kind of damage easily.
More recently, a client had a Trojan horse infect his website. He wasn't a hosting client, so we had nothing to do with the website at the time. The hosting vendor blamed the long delay in removing the Trojan horse on several factors. They are now a hosting client.
Just today I met with a company and 90% of the pictures on the website weren't correctly addressed so the site looked like a sixth grader built it for a class project and forgot the camera. Seeing it would have made me bounce off the walls. When I called the office to tell them, no body could find the "computer person".
After doing a little checking it was clear their website was like that for months. So a couple of quick tips. Have everyone call your numbers regularly so you know they work, and either pull up your website every day or pay for a service to make sure it works. Keep in mind many browsers just show you the "cached" web page until you reload or navigate around, so just making your website you home page might not alert you to a problem.
Ah Technology.....
Now we all have things happen where a website might not work, or a phone number goes out of service for a little while and we fix it and move on. These were both internal technology oversights, and that is why they are embarrassing.
In order to help us troubleshoot a website, I gave a vendor access to our servers. Not knowing that we hosted more than 100 websites on that server alone, they uploaded a file to the main folder. All of the websites quit working and no body knew it.
Thankfully, I pay for a monitoring service that randomly checks all of our sites for errors each day. I get an email right to my phone when the site is found to be down. I don't know how many customers found our website down and got a 404 page not found error or a 500 server error. It really doesn't matter if it was one. That one could have been our next big client.
The phones were another issue all together. We buy banks of phone numbers to track add campaigns. Our main number is in one of those blocks of numbers. Unlike a regular phone number we "buy" these blocks each year. This year, for whatever reason, one block didn't get paid for and our number was in that block.
I am glad to say it was only the block of numbers for our company, and no customers lost a call, but again how many calls did we lose? Fortunately some vendors had my home number and called me to make sure I was OK. That is the value of a good vendor relationship. I never call my office, so it could have been weeks before I knew. You can't fix that kind of damage easily.
More recently, a client had a Trojan horse infect his website. He wasn't a hosting client, so we had nothing to do with the website at the time. The hosting vendor blamed the long delay in removing the Trojan horse on several factors. They are now a hosting client.
Just today I met with a company and 90% of the pictures on the website weren't correctly addressed so the site looked like a sixth grader built it for a class project and forgot the camera. Seeing it would have made me bounce off the walls. When I called the office to tell them, no body could find the "computer person".
After doing a little checking it was clear their website was like that for months. So a couple of quick tips. Have everyone call your numbers regularly so you know they work, and either pull up your website every day or pay for a service to make sure it works. Keep in mind many browsers just show you the "cached" web page until you reload or navigate around, so just making your website you home page might not alert you to a problem.
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