My iPad & This Cloud Thing

Those of you who know me or have followed me for a bit know that I've made several failed runs at replacing my laptop with an iPad.  Well, I've been at it again lately...and I think it's finally going to happen.

Much has changed in the iPadiverse since my last attempt.  For one thing, I found the ideal keyboard setup (for me, at least): the Logitech Solar Keyboard folio.  While I could burn quite a bit of space here singing the praises of this particular keyboard, why don't you just check it out for yourself here?

But the real big deal?  The cloud.  I can store files on the cloud: DropBox, Box, Google Drive, SkyDrive (sorry, Apple, but iCloud is still awful for file storage - up the reliability and we'll talk).  I can run MS Office Apps: CloudOn (Excel, PPT, Word synced with Dropbox), OnLive Desktop (which provides MS Office plus MS IE on a vitual desktop), Gantter (compatible with MS Project files).  I use Expensify for managing my travel expenses and Toggl for direct billing - both cloud-based.  In the past, I've had great luck running Oracle Fusion Apps via my iPad - given the emphasis on cloud and mobility from Oracle recently, I expect even better luck going forward.

But what about heavy-duty development tasks, you ask?  I typically VPN back to the iMac in my home office, but I'm thinking about moving all my development environments to a cloud platform as well.  I like the idea of not being limited by the amount of hardware I can afford.

Last, but not least, presentations.  Yeah, I do a ton of those, with the latest coming up at OAUG Connection Point in San Diego later this week.  The plan is to run the PowerPoint slides off CloudOn and the "live drive" stuff via a VPN connection to my iMac.  I'll pack the MacBook as a backup but, if this all works, it may be the last road trip for the MacBook.

So, the bottom line?  It looks like my iPad is well on the way to replacing my MacBook. The big change since my last attempt?  More services available via the cloud.  Why should you care?  Because with the increase in Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD), you'll have to deal with the same type of scenario sooner or later on a much larger scale than my single iPad - your enterprise.  And keep in mind, BYOD hinges on available services.  And, more and more, those services depend on the "hidden" infrastructure of the cloud (private or public).  If you haven't gotten with it already, you really should start now.