In my ongoing hunt to find worth-while tech books (most recently in the field of cloud computing), I’m here today to write about Cloud Computing in Easy Steps by David Crookes.
First to note – this book is NOT about how to deploy cloud computing. It is about how to use lots of free and inexpensive options if you are an individual consumer or small business.
That aside, this is a fantastic, easy-to-read and -understand reference for folks just starting to get their feet wet in the world of multidevice-accessible applications hosted “in the cloud”. Compared to Google Apps: The Missing Manual (review), thsi text does not try to go deep, and is far more recently-published (and, therefore, up-to-date) than Nancy Conner’s well-written, but 4+ year old, tome.
Crookes makes the concepts of detaching from purely client-side computing and applications less intimiadating than they sound at first blush to most novices (and, for that matter, to most “traditional” techies and “old school” business folks). He provides excellent starter material and handy tips, reminders, and gotchas throughout.
This book is not comprehensive – it is not intended to be: it is introductory and of a quick reference nature. It accomplishes precisely what it sets out to do:
The cloud is everywhere. Cloud computing looks set to revolutionize how we create, store and share data. Today’s big names, from Apple, Microsoft to Google, are embracing it to such a degree that the world is moving from a centralized computing platform to one that can be mobile, scalable and always available.
Whether you’re a small business looking to reduce storage and application costs and make collaboration easier, or an individual who wants to use more cloud based services but isn’t too sure where to start, Cloud Computing in Easy Steps is the book for you. Each of the key concepts is covered in plain English, and many of the most popular cloud services are explained. (the back cover*)
Whether or not you should buy this book for your own shelf is up to you – I found that it’s a good one to have borrowed from my library and learn a couple nifty things I didn’t yet know about some of my favorite services. It is most certainly a good text to read.
* grammar errors left intact in the quote