LabView: Make The Most Of The Software Host
Take Gmail and GoogleApps, for example. For about $50 per user per year, a small office can meet its needs for e-mail, productivity apps and file storage quite nicely, and the reseller can fill the void in training, backup and file management services. There are a host of free tools available. One is DownLoadThemAll from independent developers Nils Maier, Federico Parodi and Stefano Verna. This Firefox add-on for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows simplifies backup by eliminating the need to select each and every file in the document list. DownloadThemAll also supports custom and bulk renaming as well as scheduling, which permits backups to be executed during off-hours.
Aside from free tools, resellers can find tools in the GoogleApps marketplace, around which they can build services for their customers.
Among the best solutions we've seen makes cloud-based files and directories appear as if they're stored on just another Windows drive letter. For less than $60 for a perpetual license, Cloud Desktop GDrive from Bi101 is perhaps the most seamless and familiar way to add files stored in Amazon's S3, Box.net, GoogleDocs, SkyDrive, WebDAV and other cloud-based file stores to any existing backup routine. It even supports files stored on FTP servers. Checkboxes during installation indicate which cloud services are in use. All your cloud-based files are there in Windows Explorer for the taking.
Among other more painful transitions -- and points of resistance -- to cloud computing for the end user is the learning curve. GDrive all but eliminates this pain point by mimicking Windows Explorer. Once installed, cloud-based files and directories appear as they would locally. Reseller pricing in volume goes as low as $29.99 per user.
Images, too, have a tendency to pile up and become unruly to manage. Solutions such as Google Picasa can help, and savvy resellers once again can seize the opportunity to profit. The GoogleApps team has done a terrific job of building tools that help with the integration of -- if not outright migration from -- Microsoft Exchange. For customers using Outlook, Google offers just about the same functionality with its own back end as an Exchange server does. And for those already using Gmail and GoogleDocs, there are sync tools for Google Calendar and for mobile devices.
So for resellers looking to boost their bottom lines, customers using cloud-based services offer open opportunities to employ the right tools to boost productivity and enhance data security. The tools are there, you just have to know where to look.
E-mail Eddie Correia at [email protected]