Cloud computing: Your not-so-secret weapon while on the go

By G Kiongo

Kenya: The phrase “cloud computing” was truly last year’s buzz word, with a good number of startups and established technology companies spewing it out like yesterday’s spinach. It was the phrase du jour, if we get fancy.

For those barely tuned in to the technology channel, cloud computing means accessing your data, files or programmes over the Internet instead of locally on your computer. 

Putting things in the cloud has immense benefits, especially for corporates. For these firms, cloud computing was offered as a service: a technology company would offer managed use of its infrastructure for a subscription fee.

Many  businesses saw this as a way to set up and scale up IT infrastructure without investing in new equipment, training new personnel or licensing new software.

At a personal level, too, many of us interact with cloud computing when we use file storage and sharing solutions such as Dropbox, Google Drive and Skydrive.

These solutions offer a myriad of features, including having an Internet storage solution for files that is available to you on the go. This frees up space on your devices like mobile phones and tablets.

Google, however, has taken this product to the next level by adding apps to Google Drive. With a device that connects to the Internet and without any word processing software, you can create, store, edit and share documents once you are signed up.

So how can you make cloud computing work for you?

Getting started

I’ll stick to Google Drive because of its increased functionality.

With a Google email account, you can set up Drive. Once that is done, you are entitled to storage of up to 15GB free.

You can access your stored items either through an app available for free download on your mobile phone, or by using any web browser. With this access, you can create folders and documents, upload files and share them.

Real-Time Document Sharing

Picture this, you are stuck at the office working on a last-minute assignment and badly need some shopping done.

Well, there’s an app for that.

You can create a document listing all the things you need and share it with your spouse, who can then access the list on his or her phone and shop.

The beauty of Google Drive is that you can control permissions, which specifies who can view your files, edit them and print them out.

The document creation and sharing functionality can be a real gem when working with groups, including chamas.

You can put up all relevant group documents, such as minutes, accounts and member lists, and allow specific people to add information you may have left out.

And since you are all working on one copy of a document, you don’t run the risk of having multiple, inconsistent or outdated copies.

Google Drive also has a chat function that further aids collaboration on club documents. From your desk at the office, you can set up a messaging chat with other members of the group — over lunch hour, of course — and get things done faster, rather than wait for that magical time when everyone in the group has the exact day and time free to have a meeting.

Ubiquitous Availability

I know of a young lady who met up with a senior HR manager quite by chance and took the opportunity to market herself. The manager was quite impressed and asked for a CV. She didn’t have it, and her marketability went down several notches. With Google Drive, she would have had her CV available on her phone and emailed it immediately.

The point is, cloud computing has the ability to sound overly complex. And while most corporates get its usefulness, too many individuals ignore it because they don’t think it can work for them. I hope I’ve convinced you otherwise.

The writer is a tech enthusiast. Email questions or comments: bizbeat@standardmedia.co.ke