Voices

How Cloud Computing Helps Advisors

I recently had a tech company do some work on my laptop -- and it went horribly wrong. Later that night, I turned on my computer to see a blank white screen. My hard drive had become corrupted.

I called the company the next day and they walked me through several steps they thought would fix the problem. No luck. Then, since they initially caused the problem, they took it back and did everything within their power to fix this issue.

The computer has since been nursed back to health, but I lost the use of it for two full days.

The good news: Being computer-less, even for a couple of days, wasn't the burden it might have been -- primarily because I've been focused on using cloud-based technology as much as possible.

Here's how:

Backup systems: I use an online backup solution called Carbonite. Every day it backs up my computer to an online storage server. I can download all those files to a new computer within a matter of hours if I want to. In this case, I only lost one file that I was working on -- and if I'd really needed to, I could have recreated it in a couple of hours.

Software & client files: My software, client documents, seminar presentations, etc. are all stored in the cloud, through various systems (Salesforce CRM, Dropbox, Prezi, Money Guide Pro, Precise FP). Even if I'd had to replace my laptop entirely, I wouldn't have needed to reinstall much software -- and none that is mission critical. While my computer was out of commission, meanwhile, I was also able to keep up with client work just by using another computer.

Mobile sync: Both my email and calendar sync to my cell phone; as a result, I didn't lose a moment of connectivity through the whole ordeal. I was even able to do doing business development through mobile email, so business didn't slow down.

Having a computer crash isn't such a far-fetched possibility. Make sure you're prepared for it.

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