SmartDraw Cloud: Conversation with Paul Stannard

Paul Stannard is the founder and CEO of SmartDraw Software. A self-taught software developer, Stannard began his career in the PC industry in 1980, founding a software company that developed software for Apple computers. Since that time, he has written more than a dozen published software applications, primarily software designed to help people visualize information. Stannard wrote the first version of SmartDraw and continues to play a key role in developing the company's software products.

In this conversation, Paul discusses SmartDraw Cloud.

Geetesh: Paul, tell us more about SmartDraw Cloud, and what motivated you to go beyond just an OS to embrace the browser?

Paul: In my estimation, most apps will migrate to a browser over the next five years or so and the advantages of using the browser are overwhelming in the era of "bring your own device." In the near future, the idea of only being able to use an app on a Windows desktop will seem limiting and archaic, if it doesn’t seem that way already.

Geetesh: Do files created in SmartDraw desktop versions work with the Cloud version and vice versa? Tell us more about how seamless the integration between the environments is?

Paul: Yes. Cloud is fully compatible and integrated with the desktop version. SmartDraw 2016 on the desktop can directly open any file created in Cloud by accessing your Cloud account. Likewise 2016 allows you to save a file created in Windows directly to your Cloud account where you can edit it further with the Cloud version. There is no data loss. They use the same file format. Round tripping is encouraged.



See Also: SmartDraw 2009.5: Conversation with Paul Stannard

---