As a yet to be converted e-book reader, I was surprised to hear recently that Amazon now sell more e-books than real * actual * paper books these days. Surprising perhaps only to someone who still uses their local library on a regular basis, alongside three pensioners, one mother and child and thanks to government cutbacks, not many others.
So whilst library books languish in dusty corners of council buildings, the world at large is setting the e-book world alight with, as the name suggests, the ever-growing presence of kindles.
This, too, is a reflection of the recent success of mummy porn sensation, 50 Shades of Grey by EL James, which has got more e-book downloads than seems humanly reasonable. Benefitting the e-book reader with its racy nature as one of ‘those’ books, it means that you can now hide your reading choice from everyone on the tube, whether it be the latest Grey installment or a carbon copy rip-off.
So far, so obvious to those forward thinking futuristic types, but in reality it’s a bit of a wake-up call to those lagging behind the online world at large. Everything changes, granted, but everything migrating online has now become the norm and how can we expect places like our beloved libraries and dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists to stay informed, keep up to date and not lose touch?
Some may find the whole process and prospect rather daunting but it really needn’t be, especially when it comes to the inevitable step of migrating your life online. So whilst you may now expect to read your newspaper online or in a tablet format, why not adopt the same attitude to your life or business’ data, online security, hosted Exchange emails and networks?
Small to medium business owners read on! You can ditch the hardware and float your business, not on the stock exchange (although correct me if I’m wrong!) but rather onward and upward to remote computing, real time updates and constant communication with Exchange hosting – taking advantages of the advances that have grown-up all around us without, it seems, us noticing.
Traditional notions of what is required to set-up and invest in a business no longer exist. Servers, IT managers, even software are no longer needed in-house as everything is available remotely at a fraction of the cost. Marvellous opportunities arise from making this brave leap forward and I believe it’s always worth taking a non-risky risk.
So whilst I will probably expect and mourn the loss of my local library, no doubt in the not too distant future, I can see how certain services and businesses are being transformed and become transformational as a result of their leap to the online world. We can expect companies to continue providing all the opportunities they once did but yet with so much more to offer and much more potential to grow.
Tags: 50 shades of Grey, amazon, books, Cloud, computing, e-books, Exchange, Hosted, Hosting, kindle, migration, online
