I know I’m going to get a lot of flack for this post. I’m sorry, I just can’t sit by watch companies throw away hundreds, or even thousands of dollars every month.
I just received an announcement for a webinar on ‘SharePoint Disaster Recovery’ (DR). Forgive me, but Isn’t that an oxymoron? Google Sites, which comes with Google Apps and has DR built in! At $50 per-user, per-year, you can have your entire IT infrastructure on Google Apps with unlimited Google Sites, and DR for everything. Is it just me, are are people really lusting for that gold-weave buggy whip? This is not some Tiffany’s bauble where value is determined by what you spend and not by the benefits derived thereof!
“But, I have thousands of dollars invested in SharePoint development.” Don’t feel bad – that was a wise decision – then. But, this is IT, and things change. Your smart phone has 160,000 times the memory of that IBM 370 your company spent millions on back in the day. Are you still backing up that baby? (Don’t answer that!)
Having spent years developing SharePoint sites, I can tell you that Google Sites development requires a fraction of the effort, and you have a much greater variety of content that can be shared. If you check my earlier post on Sites vs. SharePoint you’ll see that Google Sites allows you to publish and share business charts, drawings, forms (surveys, questionnaires, ballots, etc.), YouTube videos, Google discussion Groups, Maps (regular and data), Moderator (VERY powerful – watch for upcoming blog post, but click on the link to see Google’s info on this in the meantime), Picassa photos in either Web Albums or continuously looping slideshow views; Google (or PowerPoint) presentations which can also be displayed in a continuously looping format complete with animations and transitions.
Instead of investing in SharePoint DR, take a look at setting aside what will likely be just a few months of that cost, and rebuild your SharePoint site in Google. Obviously, if you need help, you know who to contact (nod-nod-wink-wink). Google even gives you a head start. There is a shared repository of hundreds of Google Site templates designed and categorized by industry and purpose. Chances are, there’s one already built for you. Why re-invent the wheel – when you can just plug in your logo, and go. When you’re done, if you’re not happy because it didn’t cost enough. Call me, and I’ll gladly provide you a link to our PayPal account so you can continue to make those monthly payments. We take customer satisfaction very seriously!
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