I get asked a lot of questions about different technologies I am using to make my life as a commercial real estate broker easier. I wanted to tell you about two simple cloud computing solutions that I use for my day-to-day business and why I use them the way I do. Hopefully, this will help you out as well!

Dropbox.com

There are several simple reasons as to why I use this cloud solution. Just a few are ease of use, goes across all operating system platforms, mobile app availability on both iOS and Android and cloud backup of your files. 

Box.com (fka Box.net)

Again, there are several simple answers as to why I use this cloud solution. For instance, this is a great resource if you are doing a lot of investment properties. It allows you to create a free online-war room that is secure, it will allow for collaboration of files, and you can control what you share with different users. 

These two solutions should not be viewed as similar. They both have separate purposes in my opinion. I use Dropbox more for my own personal access to my files across my desktop at the office, to a laptop at my home office to my iPad in the field and my Droid phone when I can’t get to my iPad. Any file that is in my Dropbox is accessible, and easily! I now have my entire laptop in my Dropbox, so I can see it anywhere. I am not a fan of people using Dropbox to collaborate on files, because if someone accidentally deletes a file or if you save over something, it is hard to get the original file back.

That is the reason for Box. Besides the online war room that I use it for, I use it for collaboration with others in a controlled environment. I don’t necessarily want people to delete an entire file or save over it. I want to see the original file and compare it to changes. 

What other cloud computing solutions are using? I would like to know!