Cloud Computing

Some of my clients ask about cloud computing thing and if there is anything in it for them? The short answer is yes - absolutely..      As a small-medium business, it's in your best interest to fully understand the benefits cloud-based services can provide. Cloud services are simply a way to ......

Some of my clients ask about cloud computing thing and if there is anything in it for them? The short answer is yes - absolutely..      As a small-medium business, it's in your best interest to fully understand the benefits cloud-based services can provide. Cloud services are simply a way to outsource services to a third party on a pay-as-you-use engagement model. Big companies like Amazon.com, Google and many others have made services like e-mail management, database management and office productivity simple to deploy within your organization, with the added benefit of a utility or subscription based procurement model. This turns large up-front capital expenses to low operating expenses This has got to be a good thing. Setting a cloud computing strategy Strategy is a projection into the future and you need to think about where your business is headed and what IT and systems you need to support this. Think about what technologies  your organization needs to have a strong competence in, and what technologies are better suited for somebody else to deal with. Those functions that aren't core to your operation are good candidates for the cloud. For instance, e-mail services are now a commodity, can be provided for next to nothing and there is little or no business advantage to doing this in-house. This is particularly true for small businesses where the benefits of hosting your own mail solution don't make a lot of sense. If you need collaboration features such as shared contact and calendars use google apps or Office 365. Higher value, business critical services or highly sensitive systems are probably better hosted within the business. In the case of general practice, it might be possible to outsource the billing and clinical systems but it is not something to be taken on lightly. Cloud security concerns Anytime you trust a third party, you run risks. And there will be some cases, like when data privacy is a concern, where the risks may outweigh potential benefits. However, don't arbitrarily assume that your capacity for compliance is better than that of a third party. For example, Google Apps Premier Edition has a guaranteed availability of 99.9%. You are not likely to do much better than this. The best advice I can give is to stick with the big companies for outsourcing to the cloud. Even if a smaller company looks like it has a better service model and costs less it's just not worth compromising your data or your business. While there are no guarantees, sticking with larger providers can help reduce some risks and potential liability issues. The cloud is here to stay, If you are smart you can use it to improve your IT capabilities and reduce your costs at the same time. Start by looking at some low-risk/high-value cloud options like e-mail and collaboration, and build from there. If you would like more information contact us.

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