Comments on: Microsoft needs to get real when it comes to hosting http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/07/14/microsoft-needs-to-get-real-when-it-comes-to-hosting/ Blogging in the real world Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:44:42 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Top 10 business technologies of 2010 – really? | PC Pro blog http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/07/14/microsoft-needs-to-get-real-when-it-comes-to-hosting/comment-page-1/#comment-112348 Top 10 business technologies of 2010 – really? | PC Pro blog Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:43:08 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=6334#comment-112348 [...] as Jon Honeyball points out in his post, Microsoft needs to get real when it comes to hosting, there are still huge hurdles to overcome. Will businesses really be able to trust cloud-based [...] [...] as Jon Honeyball points out in his post, Microsoft needs to get real when it comes to hosting, there are still huge hurdles to overcome. Will businesses really be able to trust cloud-based [...]

]]> By: IanB http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/07/14/microsoft-needs-to-get-real-when-it-comes-to-hosting/comment-page-1/#comment-94234 IanB Tue, 21 Jul 2009 08:40:56 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=6334#comment-94234 It seems to me that the cloud offers some benefits, data back up being the most significant. How many people reading this know their business data is poorly secured and would love to have all that done for them? The reasoning for Microsoft's utterances will, no doubt, be with an eye to some future point where we will remain dependent on their revenue generating software. I'm damned though if I'm going to be driven this way when 95% of my I.T. needs are satisfied by bog-standard products, used properly, i.e. with proper data back up and passwording. Good practice is that's really needed. It seems to me that the cloud offers some benefits, data back up being the most significant. How many people reading this know their business data is poorly secured and would love to have all that done for them?

The reasoning for Microsoft’s utterances will, no doubt, be with an eye to some future point where we will remain dependent on their revenue generating software. I’m damned though if I’m going to be driven this way when 95% of my I.T. needs are satisfied by bog-standard products, used properly, i.e. with proper data back up and passwording. Good practice is that’s really needed.

]]> By: Bill Maslen http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/07/14/microsoft-needs-to-get-real-when-it-comes-to-hosting/comment-page-1/#comment-92884 Bill Maslen Thu, 16 Jul 2009 09:43:47 +0000 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/?p=6334#comment-92884 Well said, Jon. As a small-business director, there's absolutely no way I would commit my entire IT resource to a cloud service of this kind. Such services (whether provided by Microsoft, Google, Zoho, ThinkFree or anybody else) are only useful as adjuncts to a solid core of in-house resources - yes, I occasionally use an external account to work on documents and share them with colleagues, and I have a number of online ("cloud") accounts which I use selectively, based on their specific strengths and weaknesses. But much of my own research time is spent working on ways to bring such conveniences in-house rather than find the perfect outsourcing partner. Such a partner doesn't exist - precisely because outsourcing is not a perfect (or even close to perfect) solution. Interestingly, ThinkFree were talking about providing their cloud-based Office service (no, I don't mean their application-sharing service, I mean their complete file-sharing, file preview and online search service) to clients as a downloadable solution, but that appears to have gone by the board. No doubt they have been seduced by all this SaaS "cloud" guff. I would be delighted to run my own "cloud", certainly! But there's a way to go yet. And (pace your good self) I wouldn't dream of tying myself to Microsoft's apron strings in order to do so. Well said, Jon. As a small-business director, there’s absolutely no way I would commit my entire IT resource to a cloud service of this kind. Such services (whether provided by Microsoft, Google, Zoho, ThinkFree or anybody else) are only useful as adjuncts to a solid core of in-house resources – yes, I occasionally use an external account to work on documents and share them with colleagues, and I have a number of online (”cloud”) accounts which I use selectively, based on their specific strengths and weaknesses. But much of my own research time is spent working on ways to bring such conveniences in-house rather than find the perfect outsourcing partner. Such a partner doesn’t exist – precisely because outsourcing is not a perfect (or even close to perfect) solution. Interestingly, ThinkFree were talking about providing their cloud-based Office service (no, I don’t mean their application-sharing service, I mean their complete file-sharing, file preview and online search service) to clients as a downloadable solution, but that appears to have gone by the board. No doubt they have been seduced by all this SaaS “cloud” guff. I would be delighted to run my own “cloud”, certainly! But there’s a way to go yet. And (pace your good self) I wouldn’t dream of tying myself to Microsoft’s apron strings in order to do so.

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