Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Its been coming for a while with the (rather unsuccessful) merger of Windows Live Mesh and Microsoft Skydrive. In fact the recent round of Live Essential updates forced the uninstallation of Live Mesh.

Here is a portion of the official email I got from Microsoft the other day.

Dear Mesh customer,
Recently we released the latest version of SkyDrive, which you can use to:

• Choose the files and folders on your SkyDrive that sync on each computer.
• Access your SkyDrive using a brand new app for Android v2.3 or the updated apps for Windows Phone, iPhone, and iPad.
• Collaborate online with the new Office Web apps, including Excel forms, co-authoring in PowerPoint and embeddable Word documents.

Currently 40% of Mesh customers are actively using SkyDrive and based on the positive response and our increasing focus on improving personal cloud storage, it makes sense to merge SkyDrive and Mesh into a single product for anytime and anywhere access for files. As a result, we will retire Mesh on February 13, 2013. After this date, some Mesh functions, such as remote desktop and peer to peer sync, will no longer be available and any data on the Mesh cloud, called Mesh synced storage or SkyDrive synced storage, will be removed. The folders you synced with Mesh will stop syncing, and you will not be able to connect to your PCs remotely using Mesh.
We encourage you to try out the new SkyDrive to see how it can meet your needs. During the transition period, we suggest that, in addition to using Mesh, you sync your Mesh files using SkyDrive. This way, you can try out SkyDrive without changing your existing Mesh setup. For tips on transitioning to SkyDrive, see SkyDrive for Mesh users on the Windows website. If you have questions, you can post them in the SkyDrive forums.
Mesh customers have been influential and your feedback has helped shape our strategy for Mesh and SkyDrive. We would not be here without your support and hope you continue to give us feedback as you use SkyDrive.

While Skydrive is a great tool and very useful cloud backup and synchronisation tool and I set it up for many of my customers as a way of keeping their data in synch between multiple machines and backed up as well, there are some significant gaps between it and Live Mesh and other cloud data services.

Use Skydrive when:

• You have two (or more devices) you want to keep data synched between them
• You have a windows Phone and want data backed up – eg phone camera photos can be uploaded to Skydrive automatically
• You want secure web access from anywhere to your data – eg airport browser, friends house or shared PC.
• You want to share web access only to files and images

Dont use Skydrive:

• If you want to share folders to others to synch in their skydrive or on their PC or devices.
• For me this was the big one that means we now use Dropbox for all our team and family file management.

I have been using cloud technology for a long time. I store large amounts of my data and information in numerous cloud services. Some are free and some I pay for. Some I control (on my own servers) and some I am at the mercy of the provider. Some data I want to share with other users, either read only or read write. Some I want to have available to me wherever I am or on what ever device I am using.

Here are some examples:

• Email – using Microsoft Exchange, I use one account on my own server, 1 on a clients server, and 2 on Microsoft Office 365 servers. I can access all my email, contacts, tasks and calendar from any device I choose or any location in the world where I have internet access.
• Photos – I use Flickr and Skydrive.
• Data – I primarily use Box and Dropbox. – I share with staff and family. I also share files to customers using Dropbox. I also have a Google Drive account and Skydrive.
• Notes – I use Evernote and OneNote. I share these to staff and family.
• Collaboration – I use Sharepoint on my own server and also on my Office 365 servers. I also use Basecamp to work with The High Calling team.
• Blogging – I use this blog on my own server. I also use Twitter and Facebook heavily.

How do I back that all up?

So the question arises – what happens when things change. How can I protect my data.

This vide is a good watch to get some really creative juices flowing - imagination drives innovation and invention.

Some links and resources about how to improve your use of Windows 7 and understand more about cloud options with Windows tools and server technology.

• Getting the most from Windows 7 - Microsoft Technet article with lots of links
• Optimising Windows 7 Across the Enterprise - a good read for system administrators and architects
• Windows Tweaking and Optimization: Myths and Reality - this is great stuff - main tip - uninstall crap you don't use!
• The Cloud on your terms - a 30 part series
• Screencast - building a private cloud - 3 part series
• Windows, iPad and Android - Managing and Using Your Office Assets in a Tablet World - a 6 part series