TECHNOLOGY FOR CHANGE

10 Essentials for Your Own Business Cloud

Eric Lundquist | Date: 03-05-10 | Comments

A year ago, no one cared too much about cloud computing. Now that is all anyone cares about.

Cloud computing has gone from, well, a cloudy idea to a real world of applications on demand, new services and targets for business development. First, I'll use the current definition of the cloud that is favored by tech analysts and the public relations community: The cloud is everything and everything is the cloud. That's right�a year ago, no one cared too much about cloud computing. Now that is all anyone cares about.

So you work in a business, right? Or maybe you are one of those ex-corporate types forced into self-employment by the latest recession. Here are the 10 cloud services you need to start using to build your business:

1. The Blog blob. Remember when the blog was the central focus of your business digital experience? You spent a lot of time and money finding a developer who would develop a blog that was cool and aligned with the digital trends. I think that is ending. My current favorite is Posterous. Posterous is sort of a self-building blog that can relieve you of a lot of content creation angst and allow you to get on building your business instead of a blog. Analyst Paul Gillin recently did a good piece on the siteless Web. It�s worth a read.

2. Twitter. OK, I also find Twitter more and more a repository of lame attempts to build site traffic and lots of direct tweets from folks offering you services that are seedier than seedy. But nothing else has quite replaced Twitter yet, except maybe No. 3 below.

3. Google Buzz. Google Buzz, in my opinion, got off to a bad start. But Google is becoming more like Microsoft: It gets lots of turns to get stuff right. The main attraction of Google Buzz as compared with Twitter and Facebook is if you really want to do some business, you need to stop hopping around to lots of social networks. Google is in the roll-up game, and you should give it a serious look as your one-stop digital business builder.

4. The other parts of Google. E-mail is fine with Google, YouTube and Picasa, which you can use to build out your business. Google is getting better at payments, and of course you can buy ads to go against search terms, which is where it all started.

5. Facebook. Facebook as a business medium can be really useful or an incredible time sink. However, your company does need a presence on Facebook. Do you want a group or a page? This guide helps, but I'd say go with a page at first. The two seem to be moving to become one and the same. The real one to watch here is Salesforce.com.

6. LinkedIn. LinkedIn could be a really valuable tool if they stopped trying to upsell you all the time. LinkedIn is in danger of being overused for promotion and underused for what I think was the intention: a place where business people could connect and keep track of one another. At $9.99 a month, a paid LinkedIn membership with folders and decent contact management would be a winner.

7. Plaxo. Plaxo is coming back from the digital netherworld, in my opinion. Contact management is still the basis of business, and Plaxo has realized it had moved away from its path. You can't do it all on a spreadsheet.

8. Your phone. Maybe it will be an Android-based phone running in the Google world. But right now, Skype is a still a great deal and has worldwide reach. Let's see if it can keep ahead of the phone cloud. I'm thinking the big carriers still have something to say here.

9. Your storage cloud. This has gone from few options to lots of options. I am a current fan of Dropbox. These services don't always seem important until your hard drive crashes, you forget your laptop in the cab, or you need to share a common version of one file.

10. Your security. This is a change. As I use more services in the cloud, I'm thinking it is more secure to have your services (e-mail, files, contacts and social network information) distributed in the cloud and assembled on your laptop rather than keeping everything in one place.