No. Not yet. Why? Speed and security.
Speed is a legitimate concern on a 56 kb modem. On broad band, speed is not an issue. But, if the suite is used for portability, speed on the web based suite beats the MSFT solution hands down. Suppose you are at a clients office, and want to access a proposal, modify it, and print it out for him on the spot. This can be done in less than a minute with the web app, you would literally have to go back to your office to use the MSFT solution, or have it emailed to you, which would pose a security risk. This is the same convenience Yahoo mail offers users over MSFT Exchange or Outlook, albeit at the cost of some transactional speed.
Security is not an issue with the web apps though. Our web based apps encrypt files with 40 bits when saving and opening through the web. I am sure Sun will do the same thing with their offering as well. This is something that is not done with MSFT office, there is absolutely no automated security features with MSFT office. As for safety, files on a server farm are professionally managed. These professionals have much more skill, knowledge, time and equipment to manage data than even the largest IT staffs of most companies, not to mention the average consumer using Windows 98. Think of the guy who believes his money is safer under the mattress than it is in a bank. |
