Peril of Reliance on Cloud Computing

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols warns about the danger of relying on cloud technology for mission-critical work.

Vaughan-Nichols says: "All the major public clouds have gone bye-bye! at times in recent months." And then he proposes this solution: "Keeping standalone PCs with standalone programs as the bedrock for your company's workers."

-DD

Google Reader Alternatives

Google has announced that it is shutting down its Google Reader project. This has caused Barbara Krasnoff to raise questions about the reliance that can be placed on cloud applications.

Jon Gold has proposed a number of RSS feed reader alternatives, and Whitsel Gordon has developed a less extensive list of alternatives for Lifehacker. Gregg Keizer and Nick Barber share tips for porting data to a new platform.

A decade ago Danny Sullivan wrote about implimenting an RSS feed on a website. Other tools are available now that may make the process easier. For many hosted blogs, establishing a feed simply requires configuring a few administrative options.

-DD