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Computing in the Cloud

Jun 15, 2009

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In the last five years a quiet revolution has been happening on enterprise, small-business, and home desktops: web-based applications have been quietly supplementing or even replacing traditional local or network applications. Far from being merely email or social-networking tools, web-based apps are bringing the concept of "computing in the cloud" to bear on all types of business activities. Mark Edward Soper provides an introduction to the world of web-based apps: how to select them, how to use them, and how to avoid problems.

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In the last five years, a quiet revolution has been happening on enterprise, small-business, and home desktops: web-based applications have been quietly supplementing or even replacing traditional local or network applications. Far from being merely email or social-networking tools, web-based apps are bringing the concept of "computing in the cloud" to bear on all types of business. This article provides an introduction to the world of web-based apps: how to select them, how to use them, and how to avoid problems.

Types of Web-Based Apps

You're probably heard of the leading web-based applications, such as Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live (office suites); Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail (email); Photoshop.com (photo sharing and editing); Acrobat.com (PDF converter, word processing, web conferencing); and Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace (social networking for individuals and businesses). However, these applications provide only a tiny sample of the increasingly large web-based application universe.

For example, in a recent visit to Go2Web20.net, one of the leading catalogs of web-based application, I found:

17 task management applications
Two document and image proofing applications
36 calendaring applications
29 design tools
17 file sharing tools
12 media sharing tools
Four accounting tools
25 project management tools

Another useful catalog of web-based apps, The Unofficial Web Applications List, lists:

Eight online office suites
Four personal finance tools
25 conversion utilities and file viewers
13 group collaboration tools
27 programmer's tools

Whatever your business or organization needs, it's safe to say there's at least one web-based application that can do the job for you.

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