Drake Cloud Version ?

[Lee B]

In the September issue of Accounting Today, John Sapp, Drake's Vice President of Strategic Development is quoted"

"We have a full version of desktop that runs through a web browser. It feels just as though it was running on your server

even though it's running on our server. It's almost like outsourcing your IT department. We keep the software and the

operating system up to date.   . . . . We have have it all here in Franklin North Carolina in redundant date centers."

Have any Drake users tried this or heard anything more about this ?

[jklcpa]

The Drake forum hasn't had many users comment on Drake hosted software.  One person commented that the printer and fonts were slightly problematic, and a couple of people agreed that it's better to have control of the software on our machines. Specifically, several agreed with slower internet in the more rural areas making this unworkable, or what if the internet was down in either the user's area or Drake's?  Then the person can't work on the returns?  Plus, with any cloud-based software, the user loses the ability to continue using the software if changing vendors.  I'll stick with having the software on my machine for as long as possible.

[GeneInAlabama]

The Drake forum hasn't had many users comment on Drake hosted software.  One person commented that the printer and fonts were slightly problematic, and a couple of people agreed that it's better to have control of the software on our machines. Specifically, several agreed with slower internet in the more rural areas making this unworkable, or what if the internet was down in either the user's area or Drake's?  Then the person can't work on the returns?  Plus, with any cloud-based software, the user loses the ability to continue using the software if changing vendors.  I'll stick with having the software on my machine for as long as possible.

Ditto

 

[Catherine]

I have absolutely NO interest in cloud-based software of almost any kind.  If tax software becomes only cloud-based, I will retire and go back to doing my own returns by hand.

[JJStephens]

I went to a Drake sales seminar over the summer. While I decided to go with Drake (a decision I had been mulling for 10 years), even the demo of the hosted version didn't go very smoothly and the presenter didn't push it at all.

I don't have the same aversion to cloud based software some others have (I'm using it in some other areas). As far as Drake Hosted is concerned, maybe someday. But IMO they're not even close yet.

[jklcpa]

Thanks for sharing that. I haven't been to one of their seminars in several years, since the year after I switched. While it is a sales seminar, I did pick up some useful information on shortcuts in the program and some features that I didn't know existed that help me to speed up the input process even more.  It seemed like the one I went to was attended by many existing users that were asking questions about some of these features and new ones that had been added, so the presenter was flexible enough to add those things into the program.

[JohnH]

This old discussion popped up on my screen this morning for some unknown reason.  I agree with Catherine that cloud-based software isn't a good idea, especially with tax preparation. 

The mention of the demo not going well reminds me of a friend who was showing a new high-tech medical device at a trade show years ago. When a potential customer would show interest, he would always mention that the only sound you hear is the cooling fan when you start it up.  As he was doing the demo for a doctor, the unit malfunctioned and the doctor commented that he didn't hear the fan.  Without halting his presentation, my friend replied "This one has a solid state fan."