Some organizations have IT policies which limits or prohibits use of cloud based software. Fluke Connect Desktop software is cloud based, which may avoid the use of such software in cases of limitation or prohibition the use of cloud services. Below there is a description of how to make Fluke Connect Desktop software comply with such policy.
- Fluke Connect Desktop requirements for operation
- Saving data in a folder which is not synchronized to the Fluke Connect cloud
- Disabling Fluke Connect Desktop synchronization with the Fluke Connect cloud completely
Fluke Connect Desktop requirements for operation
Fluke Connect Desktop software is a software for analysis of data and reporting findings provided by Fluke Industrial Imaging tools. But Fluke Connect Desktop was built to be used connected to Fluke Connect cloud.
This requires to have an active Fluke Connect account to start Fluke Connect Desktop software for the first time. A new account can be created in advance or during the first start of the software.
When you log in to the Fluke Connect Desktop application for the first time, a connection to the Internet is required, so that Fluke Connect Desktop software could verify existing accounts or create the new one.
Once the Fluke Connect account is created and the user logged in to the Fluke Connect account, the software will remember the account and will start, even when the PC on which it is running is completely offline and does not have connection to the Internet.
Fluke Connect Desktop software creates a folder "Fluke Connect" and subfolder with the account name in the "Documents" folder. Therefore the user needs to have proper read/write permissions for the "Documents" folder in order that Fluke Connect Desktop software could operate properly:
For proper operation of the Fluke Connect Desktop software, all data should be saved in the appropriate Fluke Connect account subfolder, namely following the path: "This PC > Documents > Fluke Connect > account.email@address.net", where "account.email@address.net" just designates the e-mail address used for registration of the Fluke Connect account.
Saving data in a folder which is not synchronized to the Fluke Connect cloud
Only the data saved in the subfolder "FC Cloud" in the working folder of the FC account are synchronized to the cloud. Therefore if you need to avoid synchronizing data with the FC cloud, when download data from the Fluke tool you can save them in your FC account folder, but not to the "FC Cloud" subfolder. You can create the folder structure you need in your account folder. If the folder is not located in the "FC Cloud" subfolder, nothing from this folder will be synchronized to the FC cloud.
Disadvantage of this method is that Asset health tracking is provided only for the data stored in the "FC Cloud" subfolder. Automated assignment of data to appropriate assets using Asset ID provided by the latest thermal cameras, is also supported only for the data stored in the "FC Cloud" subfolder.
If you still need to use some functionality provided by the Fluke Connect service, check the next topic.
Disabling Fluke Connect Desktop synchronization with the Fluke Connect cloud completely
If you still want to use most of the functionality provided by the Fluke Connect service, like having tree of assets, automated assignment of the measurements to the asset, checking asset status history and some other possibilities, but still without uploading data to the Fluke Connect cloud, it is also possible to some extent.
Please then also be aware that this data only resides on your PC, and no other functions like web-access, team sharing etc. are possible.
For this to be possible you need to disable data synchronization to the Fluke Connect cloud in the Fluke Connect Desktop software settings:
Then in the Settings window set the parameters Synchronize to Off and press Save button to save the new settings:
Once the Synchronize parameter is set to Off, and the new settings are saved, Fluke Connect Desktop software will stop synchronization of data to the Fluke Connect cloud completely. But many functions related to Fluke Connect will continue to work the same way. Fluke Connect Desktop software will behave, like the PC is disconnected from the network completely.