Staying Connected This Summer – Cloud Computing

If your family’s like mine, you probably find it hard to get together and stay connected to everyone over the summer. Between school trips, warm weather activities, business travel, and normal day-to-day stresses, it sometimes seems like my entire family is being pulled in different directions.

In order to make it easier to keep in contact with each other, we use cloud computing apps to chat, video conference, and share things with each other. These apps allow me to see what my family is up to in near real-time no matter where I am or what they’re doing. It’s nice to get constant updates from my three kids even when I’m across the country for a business meeting.

Here’s a look at some of the apps we use and the way we use them:

Staying connected

• Smart Group – This app allows you to create dynamic groups so you can instantly send text and email messages to multiple people all at once without retyping or searching through a long list of contacts. This app also helps you organize your conversations around different themes or topics—I use it when I need to chat with certain family members about an upcoming trip or when we are planning a summer event. You can find Smart Group on the App store here.

• Skype – We use Skype for our video chats, but you can substitute whichever video conferencing app works best for you—the idea is the same. When I can’t be right next to my kids to talk to them about how they’re doing, this is the next best thing. I video chat my family all the time when we’re apart—it’s a great way to retain a sense of closeness even when you’re far away. If you are not familiar with Skype you can find more info here.

• Instagram – For the few of you out there who haven’t at least heard of Instagram, it’s a photo sharing application that allows you to add instant filters to photos and share them with others. I’ve followed all my kids so I can see where they are and what they’re doing whenever they snap a picture. Instagram can be found here.

Cloud Computing is Nice, But…

Of course, nothing is quite as nice as actually being in the same home as my family, but these apps help us know what’s going on with each other at all times. This technology has allowed me to be there for my kids whenever they need me no matter what else is going on.

Do cloud computing apps form a part of your stay-in-contact strategy? Which do you find the most useful? Let us know in the comments.

Author Bio: David Borg works with Dell and loves writing about anything tech related.  When he is not working he enjoys spending time with his family. If you want more information about Dell’s enterprise cloud computing solutions click here.

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