Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Apple has recently unveiled a new Cloud Technology, called iCloud. "Cloud" storage can be thought of as an online storage facility that allows Realtors and other professionals to be away from the home office and store, track and manipulate documents and data in the field.
Instead of storing data/documents on the office hard rive, cloud technology, allows the salesperson in the field with a cloud-compatible device (such as the ipad, iphone, etc.) to access contracts, flyers and contacts in a much more mobile-friendly way, bringing huge potential advantages to these forward-thinking professionals.
The new iCloud from Apple is set to revolutionize real estate technology. Courtesy of Apple
The advantages of cloud storage are:
- Accessible 24/7
- All parties in transaction can access
- can manage all forms/contracts from one central location
- transaction status can be accessed 24/7, clients will remember this
- relatively cheap at 2 tetra bytes as low as $16
However, all is NOT "fluffy" and perfect with this new cloud technology. There are a number of disadvantages which are preventing cloud technology from taking off, including:
- possibility of cloud storage being hacked
- the cloud server could go down (down time or potential data loss)
- many businesses (and clients) do not feel completely 'safe' with privacy and confidential information stored virtually
- the technology is still relatively new, and is limited in scope and storage ability
The iCloud platform in action. Courtesy of Apple
Cloud technology is definitely an ongoing future trend that more businesses are accepting. However, many businesses have still not fully accepted this growing trend. But still, with the advent of more portable phones and devices, cloud storage is yet another tool to set yourself apart from your competition and make your productivity soar!
Next installment, I will discuss the more popular cloud service providers, compare costs and features. Stay tuned.
