Brian Joins K2 and the Delta Crown Room. What’s next- the apocalypse?

I recently started doing some work with K2 Enterprises. For those of you who are wondering, K2 is the leading provider of technology CPE for CPA’s in the US, and they teach for most of the state CPA societies. I am slated to teach quite a bit for them next year. For more info on k2, visit their website at http://www.k2e.com. My K2 e-mail address is brian@k2e.com.

I am on the plane to teach a course in Virginia right now, and spent quite a bit of time this afternoon in the Crown Room. For frequent travelers, the airport lounges are a must. I spent 2 hours in a cubicle there this afternoon, and it made all of the difference in the world. Some people say that they are in it for the free booze. I will admit, it’s nice every now and then to have a gin martini, but I’m in it for the facilities. I can get a T-mobile monthly pass when I’m on the road a lot, and it works at any Crown Room, and works at Starbucks, Kinkos, and other places as well. It’s so nice to be able to go into a cubicle, plug in my phone and PC, and return calls and recharge. I billed time in the Crown Room in excess of what I paid for it ($150) the first time I used it. Good stuff.

One of the things that really hit home with me today was the wisdom of using a hosted Exchange and Sharepoint provider. K2 uses a hosting provider for all of this. The recent events of Hurricane Katrina really brings all of this home. K2’s headquarters are in Hammond, LA, a few miles from Lake Ponchatrain. The office didn’t have power for a week after Katrina, but there was no loss of e-mail- they just kept on going. Since K2 is a ‘virtual’ organization, the field force (that’s me) never lost connectivity with each other through their hosted Exchange accounts. So I ask you- do you really need to have Exchange in house? The best answer for your disaster recovery plan may be ‘no’.

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