Killing Exchange, Google & The Cloud

I remember the day like it was yesterday... Our exchange server was turned on, Charles programmed our T-Mobile Dash smart phones and all of sudden I had instant sync's - through the air - of all of our emails, calendar events and contacts. It was July 2007 and we had just made a very significant investment in hardware - 3TB of hard drive space, an Intel Duo Core processor, triple redundant power supplies, all running Microsoft Server 2003, Exchange and a host of other software programs - I wasn't too happy about those spent dollars, but I loved the new resources I was experiencing on my Dash. I couldn't open attachments to my email and HTML wasn't supported, but damn I loved my new features.

Now almost 3 years later, and we've done something that I never thought we would do... we actually have killed our Exchange Server. We sell servers... though not our core business, we do sell them. So us killing our Exchange is almost a bit like biting the hand that feeds us, though maybe only feeds us a snack.

There was nothing wrong with our server... it's worked and has performed well, but there were weaknesses; some were glaring and dangerous, like not having any emails if we lost power or internet - this was, for us, the main reason for killing exchange. Another was just possible failure of hardware.

(Check out this video from Google Apps that shows how Motorola Mobile made the switch from Exchange to Google Mail and Google Apps Premium addition.)




However, the biggest reason was Microsoft itself. We were operating on Exchange 2003 and making the investment to move to 2007 - when everything worked fine as it was - wasn't making me happy.

Then along comes Google...

I kept hearing stories of Google Apps and how Motorola Mobile (watch the video above), with with 14,000 mail box seats, Intuit and other big corporations, had made the move the Google. If they could do it... then why couldn't Convergex? So I started doing research and I quickly made the discovery that I could do everything with the Google email Apps - including syncing with Outlook, calender & contacts - that I was currently doing with Exchange and all for $50.00 per seat, per year including support!

All of a sudden it meant no worries about loss of power, internet or hardware failures; I no longer need to VPN in to sync my Outlook on my Laptop to the exchange server... I simply open Outlook on my laptop and within a few second all my emails are updated... right from the cloud.

We've lost internet at the office several times since 2007... once for a somewhat significant time after Hurricane Ike and we lost a good bit of emails, we had battery back-up and I even had places to get reliable internet access, but with the server down... we couldn't get our emails. Now with Google and the cloud... I don't worry about any of that.

We singed up for a service from Google called Google Apps Premium Edition. We pay $50 a year per seat and Google Premium Edition provides us with Google Email, Calender, Docs (a nice feature that lets you create forms and other custom documents), Video (a video chat and collaboration suite all recorded and hosted on Google servers), Google Sites (a simple point and click website creator), and includes 800 help desk support. Actually, all these features just mentioned can be done at no cost... the $50 per seat is actually for the support feature.

All of this is accomplished in the cloud and is powered by Google's massive server farm. I figured, why not let Google make the investment hardware? We don't have to invest any longer in new server hardware, Microsoft Server programs or costs to maintain that piece of our business... it a huge savings... combined with better security, access and processing power.

It's Win, Win, Win all over!

Yes killing Exchange was weird! It seems like we had just made the advancement to Exchange - and less than 3 years later we didn't need it anymore. Also, in a real sense it really brings home where technology is heading and it's a piece of our business that I can see will be slowly going away. Less or no hardware. Less or no hassle (we haven't made one tech support call - everything just WORKS) and everything is moving up... Up to the cloud we go!

Apple iPad - Why iWant One

Has Steve Jobs hit another home run with his new iPad? Well if we're talking from a pure sales standpoint - according to this Business Week article - the iPad will be a huge hit! The article estimates that Apple will ship almost 2.7 million units by the end of this year. Those are big numbers and in comparison with the Kindles estimated 3 million units sold since its release in 2007, according to this Las Vegas Review Journal article, the iPad would effectively over take the Kindle in just a few months.

I have owned a Kindle since 2008, have bought many books for it and I've enjoyed the e-ink reading experience. Also, since Amazon added PDF support to the Kindle, I have been able to take my massive and ever expanding ebook PDF library and read it on the go. Truthfully, I have never really enjoyed reading PDF documents on a screen. Reading my PDF ebook library on the Kindle has been, for me, a much better experience.

Though focusing on the the iPad as an ebook reader, and it's effect on the Kindle's future, is like sitting and focusing on the iPhone and how it's going to destroy Motorola's RZAR's market share. My iPhone is an incredible work tool. My Apps bring joy to my daughter... when she plays tic tac toe with me; 3G and Google allow me to find information quickly and easily. Yes the iPhone did destroy the RZAR's market, but that product, like the Kindle was a uni-tasker! The Kindle does a great job at what it does... downloading books on the fly, anywhere for $9.99 in a small, easy to carry, compact body.

The iPad will do that as well... and so much more. Just like my iPhone brought home my mobile phone, iTunes, email exchange and other Microsft features into one amazing package (and did it better than my previous Microsoft based mobile phone), the iPad will do the same and allow me to do away with my Kindle and maybe even my laptop as well.

What the iPad will do for us and how it we'll use it, is still left to be seen, but one thing for sure... the possibilities seem amazing and some of what I'm hearing is exciting. I've just read this article from Techcrunch.com on a new iPad APP from Nextflix that allows me to take my Netflix account, that I already use and watch on my Playstation, and watch my Netflix instant watch list on my iPad... that is huge. I can also go from watching my streaming Netflix movie on my flat screen at home, pause it and, supposedly, pick up it up on my iPad where I left off. Very exciting stuff!

Another amazing development is what's being called Cloud 2. Where Cloud 1 was type/click, Cloud 2 is touch; where Cloud 1 is Yahoo and Amazon and everything that they inspired, Cloud 2 is Facebook where all us are connected - always. Where Cloud 1 is location unknown, Cloud 2 is known and the iPad and other mobile connected, touch technologies will play a major roll in that human interface to Cloud 2.

In his excellent article Hello iPad. Hello Could 2, Mark Benioff, CEO and Chairman of Saleforce.com, describes all this Cloud 2 business in amazing detail and his vision for the future is all about the iPad and devices like it.

My business partner and CEO of Convergex Communications, Charles Boan, is starting to develop apps for use with our customers in medicine. More and more of our medical customers are moving to electronic and online medical records. However, many still use charts and hand write notes in them... many tell us that there portable touch screen laptops are sloppy at capturing their notes. Convergex sees the iPad and special medical apps designed to capture and easily move information to the cloud as an important business use of the iPad and devices like it.

With all that said and my obvious interest of owning an iPad, the question I get is... am I going to buy one right now? Well I have decided to wait and make my personal purchase for sometime in the future. In the meantime, Convergex will have one and we'll work on the development of apps on it from the get go; however, for me personally I'll wait for iPad version 2.0 to debut.

iPad, iWant one, but I will exercise patience at this moment.