Is Sharesight in Cloud cuckoo land?

No we are not!

We are all down-to-earth characters here at Sharesight and definitely not in cloud cuckoo land – but we are In the Cloud.

We have encountered a lot of confusion from our customers about what being ‘In the Cloud’ means. Some ask us questions like ‘how do I transfer Sharesight onto my new computer’? Or ‘my computer is stuffed – does that mean all my Sharesight data is lost’?

Most of you know more about cloud computing than this of course but we do encounter a lot of people who are worried by exaggerated stories about the risks of Cloud Computing.

This is the first in a series of articles that will look at Cloud Computing. My aim is to keep it really simple to help our customers who do not have a good handle on Cloud Computing. I will look at:

1. What is Cloud Computing?
2. How Sharesight operates in the cloud
3. How do you benefit as a Sharesight customer?
4. How Cloud based services can join forces to offer you benefits you have never dreamed of
5. Finally I’ll look at perceived disadvantages of The Cloud and set your minds at rest.

So let’s get started.

What is Cloud Computing?

This is a big topic so to keep things manageable I will just focus what matters to you as an individual Sharesight customer.

Because Sharesight operates ‘In the Cloud’ it means that when you use Sharesight you don’t use your computer - you use ours! That is a bit of an exaggeration of course because you do have to turn your computer on to use Sharesight. But it doesn’t do much more than act as a messenger. Your computer sends a message to Sharesight when you log on. Sharesight then sends a copy of all your information to your computer. When you log off again nothing is stored on your computer.

This is why it doesn’t matter if your computer packs up. Well, it does of course, but not as far as your Sharesight data is concerned. You can use any computer you like, anywhere in the world, to see your Sharesight portfolio because all it has to do is be a messenger.

Sharesight’s servers do all the thousands of calculations that are needed keep your portfolio up to date and make sure it is securely stored and backed up.

I’ll tell you a bit more about servers in the next article because they play a very important part in making sure your data is secure, does not get lost and is available to you when you want it.

The main message that I want to leave you with from this first article is that because Sharesight operates in ‘The Cloud’ it can look after all the nuts and bolts. This is not another of my exaggerations! I think it is actually an understatement because Sharesight in the cloud takes a big weight off your shoulders. You do not have to worry about downloading software onto your computer, keeping it up-to-date and having a software licence. And you don’t have to worry about viruses, backing up data so you don’t lose it or running out of space on your computer.

In short, you are left free to concentrate on the fun part -- getting the best return you can from your investments and exploring all the benefits Sharesight offers.