Cloud Computing for Dummies

Many of us already use the Cloud every day when doing tasks like checking our emails, sharing files and storing contacts - by 2017 the Global Cloud Computing Services Market is to Reach US$127 Billion.

With the world going mad for cloud computing are you keeping up with the jargon? 

At RouteShoot HQ there's a few of us who don't "speak tech" and that's why, with the help of our techno-geniuses we've put together this quick guide to explain what Cloud Computing is.

Cloud computing is a way of accessing your information through a complex network involving the internet. Instead of just accessing your data from the box in the corner, you now access your data via an internet connection. Historically, most data and information that business' have has been held on a computer in the corner of the office. Sound familiar? We all feel comfortable with our data held in this way, somewhere you know, with the people you trust. 

But what happens if:

• There is a fire at your premises damaging your computers
• You're the unfortunate victims of the most recent spate of PC burglaries 
• The computer you hold your data on has a melt down
• or even just that the office is closed because of snow

Cloud Computing experts would argue that in the above instances your data is better off with them.

At RouteShoot our Cloud hosted data is stored in highly secure data centres all over the world. By storing our data in this way we make use of an economy of scale and can directly benefit from the data protection team at the data centre whose sole job is to protect our important information. Not only does this reduce liability for us but it also provides peace of mind because we know that our information is protected with cutting edge data security tools and a dedicated team. This isn't something that ourselves or our customers have the resources to achieve in their own offices.

So if the data is actually in a data centre then where does the cloud come in?

Cloud computing is a way of accessing your information through a complex network involving the internet. Instead of just accessing your data from the box in the corner, you now access your data via an internet connection.

So now you know what all the fuss is about...

RouteShoot Recommended by Stuff (again!)

Following our "App of the Week" review by Stuff.tv back in April, we are really happy to let you know that they have been singing our praises again.

According to Stuff there are now more than 927,000 free Android apps available in the Google Play store - and they have chosen us as one of 30 "cracker" apps to look out for.

Please read their article here. We are listed number 30, but we don't think the list is in any particular order.

Nice to think that out of all the apps on the store we are included in a select 0.01% that they have picked out for a specific mention. Our thanks, once again, to the Stuff team for appreciating our work.

About Stuff.tv: Stuff is the world’s biggest-selling gadget magazine, and Stuff.tv is the online bit of that magazine (if that makes any sense). It’s where you can find tech news that’s wry but not dry, the world’s most trusted gadget tests and exclusive previews of the latest phones, computers, tablets, games, apps, TVs, hi-fi, headphones, cameras, consoles, and media players.

Occasional Update

Once again hi.

It is that time again when we feel we should spread a little bit of RouteShoot news and observation, so here we go...

RouteShoot New Recruit - (nearly a tongue twister, but not quite)

Down at RouteShoot HQ in Exeter, our team continue to go from strength to strength. We are very pleased this week to be able to introduce our newest team member Stacey. Despite a busy first week for Stacey, getting settled into her new Business Development role, she was able to give us the following statement:

"I’m delighted to join the RouteShoot team, especially in such an exciting stage of growth. I will be involved in improving the organisation’s market position and also exploring new opportunities for expansion and development. I hope to draw upon my previous experience for this varied role whilst adapting and learning new skills on the job." 

If you are on our existing customer list, or sit within our target markets for the commercial version of RouteShoot, we hope that you will be hearing from Stacey soon.

Industry Update - Street Works

For those of you in the highways maintenance or utilities sectors, you will probably be aware that the new Code of Practice for Safety at Street Works and Road Works has come into force this month. Compliance with this code is mandatory, and the Code warns that failure to comply is "evidence of failing to fulfil the legal requirements to sign, light and guard works".

We believe that RouteShoot would be an ideal way for companies to prove that they have complied with this Code. Date and time-stamped, geo-located video could provide an unequivocal record that your company has set out and inspected its street works in line with your obligations. These records could be of vital importance should a company find itself having to defend future claims against it.

For a free, no obligation trial of RouteShoot please visit our main website by clicking here. 

The Benefits of Cloud Computing

For those of you that don't know, RouteShoot makes use of "the cloud" for storing the video and route files created by our smartphone apps. Cloud computing has really been a key factor in delivering the RouteShoot product.

In August this year our FD, Adam, was interviewed by Deloitte and, as one of around 35 companies, RouteShoot's experience with cloud computing was used as input to a report commissioned by Google. Whilst RouteShoot is not directly credited, the report, "Small business, big technology: How the cloud enables rapid growth in SMBs", can be viewed by clicking here.

You can also link to Google's own "Google for Work" Blog by clicking here. 

And Finally

And finally, we have to say that this report from the BBC website made us smile. Scientist have discovered the brain's GPS!

Now, if only we could get that information out as NMEA strings.

Occasional Update

Hi,

Just a quick catch up on developments - since we haven't blogged for a couple of weeks.

Drone Technology

We have finally got hold of some footage of the first drone flight tests in the US. While the video itself isn't particularly exciting, this is a great example of how we expect to see RouteShoot used in the future.

In this case Premier didn't actually use the RouteShoot smartphone app to capture the video and route, but rather they took the video file from the drone's built-in camera and matched it up with a separate route file, created at the same time, using a simple GPS-logger.

First test flight of the Premier drone

In future we plan to expand the web-side functionality of RouteShoot so that we can support many different input options. So, as long as you are collecting a video and GPS data in some way, we will be able to load that alongside any videos you shoot using the smartphone app. The RouteShoot website then becomes the definitive CMS for all of your geo-located imagery, whatever system you are using to collect the data.

We are currently working on developments to support the most common GPS file types, and one particularly specialist bit of camera kit for a prospective client. Hopefully we'll have some more news on that soon.

Exporting and UKTI

On the exporting front, we continue to explore opportunities overseas and, as you might expect, we are really pushing to get RouteShoot used as widely across the world as possible. In order to achieve this we are working closely with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and they have been promoting us through their own recent press releases. We are hoping to get some National coverage soon, but so far they have managed to get us featured in our local press - which is a good start. Please click on the links below to see these articles:

• Western Morning News
• Express and Echo

Until next time...

New York Update

Welcome, or maybe (we hope) welcome back...

Last week we were invited to the US by our biggest customer Premier. The reason for our visit was two-fold. Firstly we were there to catch up on some of the new technologies we are exploring with Premier for RouteShoot, such as data capture from Google Glass and from drones.

Premier offices - Hauppauge, Long Island

The picture below shows Premier's Director of Technology, Chris Bartlett, demonstrating the preparation of one of their drones for RouteShoot video capture to our MD. 

RouteShoot takes to the skies

The second reason for our visit was to attend the Willbros "Innovation Summit" in New York. At this event, Willbros displayed some of their own technology solutions, developed in-house, for the utilities and pipeline sectors using the Google Maps Engine (GME). The event was staged to demonstrate Willbros' cutting-edge approach to data management at a time when US Codes of Federal Regulation (CFR) are placing increasing governance pressures on infrastructure management companies.

Setting up for the Willbros Innovation Summit

Attendees at the event included Willbros' clients, potential clients, senior managers and investors.

RouteShoot featured as technology partners for Geo-referenced video capture

We were really proud and privileged to feature at this event, alongside Google, as a technology partner to Willbros. We would like to extend our sincerest thanks to Marc, Chris and the whole of the Willbros/Premier team for this opportunity.

Occasional Update

Hi all,

We haven’t blogged for a little while, so it’s probably time for a quick update.

Things seem a bit quiet on the commercial front at the moment, as everyone appears to have their minds on other things – not least taking their summer vacations. But this doesn’t mean that nothing is going on. Our developers are still slogging away, but at the moment this is all on back-end stuff, so nothing we can show fancy pictures of - which is a bit of a shame.

We did get a bit of RouteShoot press coverage though, through Creative England, when our FD (and co-founder) was interviewed to tease out some advice about starting up a new company. If you would like to see his words of “wisdom” then please take a look at the article here.

We were also interviewed recently by Deloitte, on behalf of Google, in respect to how cloud computing is helping our company to grow. The report by Deloitte is still being worked on, but hopefully we’ll get some feedback we can share with you next month.

Next for us, our MD and FD are off to New York next week, as guests of our biggest client, Premier – and if we’re lucky they will get to meet some representatives of Google. Hopefully they’ll both remember to take some videos and photos, and we’ll have something more exciting to blog about next time.

Until then, we hope you’re all having great vacations. Don’t forget to RouteShoot the best bits.

Also, if you're interested in commercial use, a reminder that our free, no-obligation trial is still available. Just click here to sign up today.

RouteShoot Around Glastonbury

As promised in our last post - some RouteShoot-ing around the Glastonbury Festival site.

With one of our colleagues working on the Info points at the Glastonbury Festival this year, we took the opportunity to capture a couple of RouteShoot videos. These were recorded on the Tuesday, just a day before all of the festival-goers arrived...

A trip around the main Pyramid Stage field

A trip through the middle of the market areas

Have a good weekend everyone. - And don't forget to shoot that route if you're up to anything exciting or memorable.