So, you’ve heard by now that we’re moving…to the cloud. Throughout this series of blog posts we’ll be explaining and sharing our entire experience with you. This post should really frame everything and give you an overall perspective on why we’ve decided to make this move.

A little background

Our move to the cloud really began in late 2008. During our end of year review and planning one of our biggest topics of discussion was our website and blog. At that time, we were using a very capable WYSIWYG, (What You See is What You Get), Website design software package called Rapid Weaver. We chose Rapid Weaver as our Website design software shortly after we began business. Our primary reasoning for making this choice was the WYSIWYG feature because at that time, we knew just enough HTML and CSS to be dangerous. Rapid Weaver had the ability to create a blog page and we initially used that feature until we quickly realized how inconvenient it was to use. Essentially, every time we wanted to add a new blog post, we had to open up the software, draft the blog, and then re-publish the changes to the website. While this is not a huge deal if you only have one person blogging, it is quite inconvenient when there are multiple authors.

In an attempt to make it easier for both me and Kevin to blog at will, we opened a Typepad account, largely because it was web based and either of us could access it from a web browser (and because Kevin really liked the iPhone interface). Our dilemma with that however was that we had a fairly static website at one web address and our blog located at a completely different web address. So, if we got traffic to our website, people didn’t have access to our blog content, and if we got traffic to our blog, people didn’t get a lot of the important information they were looking for about our company. Plus, we were paying a monthly fee for Typepad as well as paying a monthly hosting fee for our website.

So, to bring this back around to the subject at hand, we discovered and began investigating the WordPress platform late last year. Both Kevin and I had heard about WordPress in the past, but had never really given it much consideration because we thought that it was quite similar to Typepad. What we learned was that WordPress is quite possibly the most innovative Content Management System platform in the world. As we began to investigate and learn more about WordPress, we realized that it was exactly what we had been looking for when we started our business three years ago. We realized that WordPress had become much more than a blogging engine, and could function as our Hub on the web and be a central place where our clients and prospects can connect with us.

In the next post, I’ll be giving you some examples of how we are utilizing WordPress as our Hub.

In case you didn’t hear, you can win one (1) of four (4) Web Presence Development Packages that we are giving away by simply following us on Twitter. If you haven’t done so, go there now and follow us. The drawing for the Web Presence Development Packages takes place on August 1, 2009.

We’re moving…to the cloud. You’ve probably heard of the cloud, but just in case you haven’t here’s how Wikipedia explains it:

Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud” that supports them.

Another term that is often used interchangeably with the cloud is Software as a Service, or SaaS. Essentially, the software lives in the cloud, on someone else’s technology infrastructure, and it is accessed over the internet with a web browser. Simply put, by moving to the cloud, DDS won’t have to continue to invest our hard earned capital in Server ownership and maintenance. Instead, we’ll be paying a monthly subscription fee for the Software as a Service (SaaS) that we utilize.

Since we began business, a little more than 3 years ago, we’ve utilized some very good desktop applications that have helped us run every aspect of our business. Many of these desktop applications connect back to a Server side application running on our Macintosh OS X Server. These applications have included Daylite, Billings, and MYOB Account Edge, to name a few. They are top notch and they have served us very well.

As great as these applications have been, we’ve concluded that moving to the cloud is what will help DDS continue to to bring our Clients the best service and value in the long term. There have been many factors that have impacted our decision and we’ll be sharing those and chronicling our move to the cloud experience here on our blog. It is our hope that by documenting our experience here that we can help you and your company make a determination about whether such a move is right for you and, if so, hopefully you can learn some best practices. You might even learn a few things that you shouldn’t do.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions for us along the way, please leave us some comments. We’d really like to engage as many of our readers as possible during this process.

With the Daylite touch application you can manage your business on the go without the bulk of carrying a notebook computer. Some of the features of Daylite touch include:

• Multi-user Calendar management
• Contact management
• Opportunity management
• Project management
• Task management and delegation

We hope you’ll come out and join us as we demonstrate how Daylite 3.9 and Daylite touch compliment one another.

I’ve had just a couple of hours of hands on use so far but everything works as billed. I can’t believe that the folks at Marketcircle packed so much into this app. I love the fact that even the emails that are linked to my contacts, opportunities, or projects are included in Daylite touch. Very, very powerful. I will be putting it to the test over the next few days. Check back in shortly for more detailed information.

The biggest thing that I am noticing is how fast the database loads and refreshes now that it is running on PostgresSQL instead of OpenBase. I connect to our Daylite Server over the internet and my up bandwidth tops out at about 384K. (Yes, that’s a “K” so not very fast). When Daylite was running on OpenBase, (you know, 4 hours ago), my usual routine was to start the login process, go grab a fresh cup of coffee, make a pit stop at the restroom and return to my desk to wait another minute or two while the login process finishes. Not the case now. Less than a minute.

I also notice substantially increased quickness as I navigate around the different objects in the Daylite 3.9 desktop app.Delegation and notification updates are happening in a much shorter time span too. So basically, if another user invites me to a meeting or delegates a task, opportunity, or project to me, I’m getting notified within just a few moments. This is great.

More to come…

• Migrating your existing Daylite database
• Things that get broken after the migration
• How the new Daylite touch app. compliments the desktop app.

Also, check in over at StudioD.tv for screen casts that detail the back-end changes such as the new Daylite Server Admin interface.

Daylite Touch Submitted to the AppStore

March 7, 2009 on 1:14 pm | In Apple, Business, Daylite, General

Exactly one year after Apple released the iPhone SDK and exactly one year after we began development, we submitted Daylite Touch to the AppStore yesterday.

Daylite Touch is major milestone for us as a company. Not only is it our first mobile app, it is also a milestone for small businesses. You’ll get functionality that even large scale enterprise systems don’t have, such as scheduling meetings with colleagues right from the phone you can also view their calendars. You’ll get power features such as open projects with linked tasks, appointments and notes from all users. You’ll get really useful “on the go” features such as the home screen with everything you have to do today and tomorrow. And more…

via Marketcircle Blog.

We always recommend that as a rule you do not run a Beta application on a production computer or server. Beta applications are given beta status for a reason. The biggest reason is that the developer, in this case Apple, needs to find out what bugs still remain, a la plugin breakage. While we are excited about Safari 4 and the capabilities that it will bring, please refrain from installing it on a computer or server that you rely upon to conduct daily business.

If you have already installed Safari 4 on a production computer or server, use the uninstall utility that Apple so wisely included with the Beta download. If you are having trouble with any of this please either open a Help Desk ticket or contact us by email.

Take a few moments and visit Mophie’s page on this. The product itself looks very nice, well designed, and best of all, it appears to have a very small form factor. So, it shouldn’t bulk up your iPhone too much.

Some quick specs…

• Up to 270 additional hours of Standby Time
• Up to 4.5 hours of additional Talk Time (3G)
• Up to 4.5 hours of additional Internet Use (3G)
• Up to 5.4 hours of additional Internet Use (Wi-Fi)

Mophie says that the product will be available by Spring of 2009.