Note that I’m talking about using these tools in some kind of
professional way, and more specifically, I’m talking about using
Excel as a database, and using VPS hosting to host “professional”
web sites. By “professional”, I mean something other than your
personal blog, picture gallery, or other relatively
inconsequential site.
Excel is not a database
Here’s the thing: Excel isn’t a database. Most people who don’t
work in IT don’t seem to understand this, and they’re deathly
afraid to actually communicate with anyone in IT, so they take
matters into their own hands, and create problems so big that IT
is forced to get involved, because at some point this spreadsheet
becomes “critical” to some business function. Then IT gets even
more bitter toward the non-IT folk, validating some of the
reasons the non-IT folk went that route in the first place, and
virtually guaranteeing that they won’t come to the IT …
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