In mid-March Google announced via a blog post that it would shut down Google Reader. This set off a firestorm of complaints all over the internet. For those of you that have never heard of Google Reader, it was a RSS feed reader that allowed users to subscribe and categorize website feeds from one central location. Basically it made it really easy for users to keep track of new blog posts. A lot of people relied on Google Reader to process their news every single day, and when it went away they were left scrambling for a new alternative. That meant learning a whole new system, transferring all your data to the new one, and the overall time suck of dealing with it all – YUCK!
The overnight death of Google Reader made me pause and think about how vulnerable my company could be to sudden demise of an application I rely on. If these services shut their doors tomorrow, where would I be? Most of the apps I use for my personal life, like Pandora or Spotify wouldn’t really impact me all that much. I still have an extensive .mp3 library and even a handful of CD’s floating around, I think… But I’ve come to rely on a few applications to help me manage the business side of Niby. Applications like Evernote, Outright, Freshbooks, and CrashPlan. Each of these fill an integral niche of my workflow and if they went away, I’d be scrambling to find a replacement.
The closure of Google Reader illustrates one of the major problems of cloud based applications. Unlike the copy of Quickbooks many of you have installed on your machines, my accounting software is susceptible to the sudden closure of an online application. Yikes!! What should we do?
The first thing that comes to mind is to start paying for it; or make sure a site you rely on offers a paid version. Companies that make money tend to stick around longer than those that don’t. Sure any business can run out of money, but having the ability to charge for a service puts them ahead of an application that only offers a free version. If you truly rely on an application PAY FOR IT!! Show your support by paying for something you use on a daily basis. I pay for all the online applications I use. While I enjoy the benefits of having a premium membership, I am also aware of the fact that I am doing a small part in helping to keep this business around.
Secondly, at least be aware a shutdown could happen some day. Have a contingency plan in place. I keep a paper copy of my monthly balance sheets for all of my transactions in outright. That way at least I know if something goes wrong, I have a paper copy in waiting. I also know that I could download all of my transactions to a .csv if I ever needed to.
If the death of Google Reader teaches you anything, it is to be prepared. What kind of backup plan do you have in place? Are there steps you can be doing now that may lessen the impact of an unexpected closure? What do you do? Let us know in the comments. I’d like to hear from others.
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