Microsoft Rolls Up Cloud Services Into Office 365, Takes Aim At Google Apps (via TechCrunch)

Might be interesting – we will have to wait and see!  More and more applications are moving to the cloud with 24×7 access – anywhere – anytime.

Today at an event in San Francisco, Microsoft’s Office division is unveiling a new product: a suite of the company’s productivity services called Office 365. Before now, Microsoft’s business-facing cloud services have been broken up in a few places: SharePoint, Lync Online, Exchange, and Office web apps. Office 365 looks to unify these. Microsoft SVP Chris Capossela says “This is everything we know about productivity brought to the cloud”. The me … Read More

via TechCrunch

Post-it Notes in the CLOUD!

Several years ago I started to use Google Notebook to make notes, ToDo lists, if I find something at work that I want to review at home etc.  This product is still available, but Google is not updating. 

You ask what is Post-it Notes in the Cloud – it’s a WEB application that allows you to make notes, Tag them as well as put them categories to organize the notes.  These are available to you where ever you are with access to the WEB!  Has really come in handy!

Then I got a smart phone and other applications started to show up that allowed easy access from your computer and smart phone.  I started using a program called Evernote and recently started looking at Catch as well.

We all have to make notes, hear a song you want to remember the name, need to pick something up etc… Think about it this way – EVERYTHING you use a Sticky Note for you can use one of these and many other programs that are available.  Keep your important working notes and information in the cloud so you have access to them anytime and anywhere!

Cloud Storage – Good – Bad for Schools

Today everyone wants to be able to move files around more than ever before.  Kids and teachers work on assignments and projects at school and want to bring it home or the reverse.  Years ago (many) they would use a floppy (5.25 or 3.5),  it went to burning CD’s, to burning DVD and today people are using USB memory sticks.  As the technology changes so have the hackers, the newest threat is through those memory sticks everyone is using.   Kids being kids you never know what is on those keys and what damage it may cause the district.  You also need to be concerned about the type of information teachers may store on these memory sticks, as sensitive information can be lost if your not protecting the devices in some way.

A great alternative is cloud storage and there are many free services, but the one I trust and use is Microsoft Skydrive and Live Mesh that is in Beta and currently called Live Sync.   Skydrive is cloud based storage, it’s free with an MS LIVE ID and you have 25G available.  A number of applications that are included in LIVE ESSENTIALS 2011 use this storage as well.  The downside is that you have to move the files manually to skydrive.  Live Sync (Live Mesh) is just what you think, it will sync files or folders from one machine to another or to the cloud.  Currently Live Sync allows for 2G of cloud storage, but once Live Essentials 2011 comes out of  Beta you will have 5G of cloud storage to play with.  Kids and teachers can sync their files to the cloud for use at home and at school.

One item that has to be considered is if your firewall blocks Microsoft pages and how you have it set up.   These solutions fall under the LIVE.com address and if you have Hotmail blocked, you might have both Skydrive and Live sync blocked as well.

Just an idea to reduce your exposure to possible issues with USB keys.   The other advantage with the cloud is that the information is always available from anywhere, kids can forget or for that matter lose USB keys – the cloud is always there – no excuses.