Working on the webtop
The days of working with the traditional desktop on your computer are numbered. With the almost ubiquitous availability of broadband access to the internet, it is now possible to work on any internet connected computer no matter its location. You can now throw off the constraints of the desktop and embrace the freedom of the webtop.
A quiet revolution has been taking place online that may eventually mean the dominance of Microsoft’s Office suite will be over. If your business wants to have more freedom with the data its creates and manipulates, moving to webtop applications is the perfect solution. What’s more, removing applications from your computer’s desktop enables their developers to upgrade them at anytime. When you next logon, any new features are instantly available. The traditional CD based installation of business applications, and then the annual upgrade suddenly looks archaic and inefficient.
The current leader of the pack in this burgeoning business space is Google Docs. Included in the package is a word processor, spreadsheet, email application and calendar. These programs don’t have all the bells and whistles of their MS Office counterparts, but ask yourself when was the last time you needed to do any complex formatting in Word, or produce a pivot table in Excel? You can get started for free, or buy the Premier Edition for £25 (approx) per user account, per year.
Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager, Google Enterprise, said: "Businesses are looking for applications that are simple and intuitive for employees, but also offer the security, reliability and manageability their organizations require. With Google Apps, our customers can tap into an unprecedented stream of technology and innovation at a fraction of the cost of traditional installed solutions."
If the applications from Google are not up your street, the Web 2.0 paradigm is also spawning internet-based office applications as well. Take a look at Buzzword and Zoho Sheet. Document creation using the universal PDF format is also now possible with nothing more than an internet connection. The service from Adobe is subscription based, enabling you to avoid buying off-the-shelf software that quickly become out-of-date. Adobe have also pushed the use of the webtop with their Acrobat website that offers live meeting spaces, word processing, data sharing and information storage via your favourite internet browser.
Microsoft of course are not sitting still as their desktop bound Office suite comes under assault from the raft of Web 2.0 applications. Microsoft are still clinging to the PC desktop, but now offer Office Live Workspace to enable you to share documents online. BT also have an equivalent service with their similarly titled Workspace.
Perhaps the most striking and useful aspect of the webtop is its ability to become a multifaceted desktop that is infinitely customisable. From a business users point of view having professional applications along with their saved documents available from any internet connected PC (Mac or Windows) is liberating in the extreme. You should, though, look closely at using any online applications with sensitive data, but for general business use, the webtop is ideal.
The question then is can you move your office applications online and effectively run your business? Your precise needs will ultimate determine the answer to that question. What is clear is that all the online applications are rapidly evolving. At the moment if you need advanced features, desktop-based software is still the sensible choice. However, mobile workers, and for businesses looking to reduce costs and improve flexibility within their organizations, the webtop could be the perfect companion for your business. You may find that you think twice when it comes to the next upgrade to Microsoft’s Office.
For more information on working on the webtop, why not read our cloud computing guide.
Copy this content onto your website
Paste this snippet to use content on your website:
Copy this content onto your website
Paste this snippet to use content on your website:
