It’s hard to miss these days. Virtualization is the biggest trend, topic and force in information technology. Amazon’s virtual compute cloud services called AWS have taken the world by storm as even enterprise buyers line up to consume virtual compute power on the fly. IT consumers are focused less and less on the hardware and stack supporting the service and more and more on simply consuming the value delivered over the internet on demand.

Yet despite this revolution, some of us still don’t have an online fax service (you know who you are). Instead of using an e-mail fax (or electronic fax) solution, they continue to receive paper faxes available only in one physical location in the world. The irony? Some of them are sipping coffee reading the latest best seller on their Kindle electronic reader while waiting for a proposal to drop out of their paper fax machine. Its 2009 and it’s information’s job to find us, not the other way around.

So for those numerous hangers-on, I thought I’d make a list of the top reasons it is absolutely time to adopt an online fax service.

1. Travel is a reality: The simple argument for directing all faxes to an electronic fax–you probably travel. Why deal with the hassle of asking someone to pick up a fax for you while you’re gone or tolerate the risk an important fax will be overlooked while you are gone? You carry that smart phone for a reason, use it. Read your faxes instantly in e-mail as soon as you receive them anywhere in the world.
2. Let information follow you: Point one is so important, I want to say it again a different way. Its 2009 and information serves us now. It finds us through RSS feeds and status updates. We no longer have to wait for the physical TV to spit out the shows we want, we watch them electronically on Tivo or, for the truly advanced, Hulu.com. Don’t rush home from soccer practice to receive a fax. Read it wherever you are in the wold and stop for a tasty smoothie with the kids. There… isn’t that better?
3. Speed: Forwarding simplicity: It’s easier to forward an electronic fax. You just hit forward in your e-mail and it’s on its way. Why waste your time typing in five phone numbers of other people who need to see the document? You can also fire off a quick acknowledgement with notes to the sender. Internet fax is a faster fax.
4. Reliability: Unlike some fax machines, the internet is almost always on and working. There is no toner to run out or a line for the cat to pull out of the back. Have you ever hassled with a fax machine? If you own one, the answer is probably yes.
5. Green savings: E-mail based fax services are more affordable than ever. They deliver all of the above benefits, push you into 21st century thinking, and are still cheaper than a dedicated phone line approach to faxing. They are also greener–no paper or toner unless you decide its important enough to print. Everyone loves trees, so lets try to keep them around. Faxing accounts for 5% of office paper use! Want to be 5% greener tomorrow? Switch to an e-mail fax solution today.

Photos by Abhisek Sarda and geishaboy500