Recently we've obtained some projects in Canada for 3twenty Solutions in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  It's very exciting to see our work internationally grow, although it's hard to think of Canada as a foreign country.  The language is the same, the accent is pretty close to ours, and the culture is like a very polite version of what we like to think our culture is.  

We're working with 3twenty on mining camp designs, and I'm in the process of getting licensed in Canada.  Oddly, the easiest way to do it is to first get licensed in Texas, their board is signatory to some NAFTA agreement, and then I can get a "temporary" PEng license in Saskatchewan on reciprocity. 

We've also started work in Haiti, so now we've got three countries outside of the US we've done work in during this fall.  It's all very exciting, and while business challenges remain, I am happy to say we are in much better shape than we were at the housing crash three years ago.  Oddly, it was the evaporation of the housing market and near disaster for us that led us to work in the international arena.  I guess it is true that sometimes adversity can bring on new opportunities. 

Back in the late 1990's there was a lot of talk about "Net Machines". These would be stripped down computers with minimal memory, processors, and hard drive space. All of your programs and documents would be accessed through the Internet. I remember arguing with somebody who insisted that "people don't need all that computing power". I didn't agree, maybe some people just surf the web and do some word processing, but I was busy with CAD, databases, spreadsheets, and many other programs. CAD in itself required a lot of processing power. For that reason, I couldn't see myself using a net machine. I don't think that was what killed the idea though - it was the Internet connection speeds. In the late 1990's, most people had dial up connections. "Broadband" was often pretty slow by today's standards, generally 1.5 MPS was the fastest you could get, if you could get it. I didn't get broadband to my house until 2000.  Even in 2001, I had limited choices for broadband in my office. At the time, I could only get relatively slow DSL. 

Today the idea is coming back. A lot of the discussion that I find on the Internet has to do with Cloud Computing replacing the IT infrastructure of larger companies. Instead of huge banks of servers, you basically rent space on "The Cloud". For those of us as individuals and small businesses, a lot of solutions are coming through too, and they are very inexpensive. I'm writing this article on the Microsoft Live website with their Word Web App. I'll save it on their SkyDrive, where I have 25 GB of space. How much am I paying for this? Nothing, it's free. I now do field notes with my Net Book through Google Documents. With that, my report is written and saved to my Google account. The advantage is I can access the notes anywhere, and if someone steals my Net Book (which has already happened once), I don't lose my notes. Google gives me less memory for free; about 1 GB, but the word processor, presentation software, and spreadsheet are free (as they are with Microsoft). I use Google in the field because its website is easier to access.  I also had some problems with Microsoft's website, it's not very easy to work with. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't work too well on the free sites for the digital photos I take in the field, or saving CAD files, which are also pretty large. That leaves the need still to have fairly large hard drive space. However, it's getting cheaper and cheaper to back up on the Web. There's a number of different back up services, like Mozy, that are cheap and effective. However, in my case most of my files were on the server I bought when I had an office. Mozy and the other back up services will detect if you are using a server, and for that type of backup you have to use their business services. So what I did was I bought 100 GB of drive space for two years from my web hosting company, GoDaddy.com and used it for a backup.  The price was very low, about $60.  They give you an application that synchronizes your files automatically, so you don't have to worry about remembering to backup.  The nice thing about it is it can be seen as an additional hard drive by any computer, so I can access my files anywhere from any computer very easily.

So far I have found some drawbacks. First, some of the work I do just doesn't go well over the Cloud. Using CAD with your files on a website somewhere is too slow. I also find my database/reports program is somewhat hard to work with. I had to upload it to a Sharepoint site that I got with my broadband service, and you have to "check out" the database every time you use it. Not an easy process, but it the advantage of data security is worth it for me. If I had a number of employees, it might not work too well though. If something is complex, a lot of times people either won't use it, or will mess it up.  The final problem for me is file organization. I organize everything by project files, with correspondence, drawings, and calculations all in a project directory. As I said before, working with CAD doesn't go so well over the Internet. While I can organize project files on a cloud site like Microsoft's or Google's, it makes it a bit complex, since I have to keep the CAD files local. The other problem has been getting my data up to the GoDaddy site. It's taken days to transfer 10 years worth of files. For me, that is a minor inconvenience, since I no longer have to worry about losing critical data if someone breaks in my house and steals the computers (unlikely), the house burns down (hopefully unlikely), or my house gets hit by lightning (which has happened to a number of houses in my neighborhood, so it has a disturbingly large chance of happening).

What are the advantages? First, you don't have to worry about hard drive crashes. Some things you can guarantee will happen, and a hard drive failure is one. It's a pain no matter what, but if you have critical documents on your drive, it can cost you a lot of hassles and money. You don't worry about data files being corrupted by viruses. You can access your files anywhere from any computer without having to deal with hassles of Static IP addresses or expensive software. You can share files through your organization without having to deal with a server and the pain that one of those can bring on. Employees can easily work from home without having the hassles of a Virtual Private Network, and you don't have to worry about their data security. 

So, in the end, I recommend you take a look at Microsoft's explore.live.com site or Google's document's section of its site. To use an overworked word in the IT business, Cloud computing is "scalable" and there are varying levels of use to all of us. For me, it means access to my data wherever I am, being able to easily share files, and having data security. Oh, and I will finally get to unplug the server I have behind my couch in my living room.