Now that you know that the cloud is essentially an internet-based network of computers sharing resources, the thought of making use of some of those resources shouldn’t be quite so daunting. On the contrary, you should feel excited about your new found door to efficiency and peace of mind. Many of these services take advantage …
The concept of cloud computing isn’t really a new one. They had something like that decades ago, known as “dummy terminals”. Typically low powered machines that accessed the resources on a high-end, very expensive server. As computing needs grew and performance was needed, the de-centralization movement began. Sort of. Now, with the added resources of …
A Head in the Cloud – Speed & Equipment (Part 9) Read More »
One of the biggest sources of hesitation I run across when talking to business owners about these concepts is the data security and client or business data privacy. I like to think of it this way: How secure is your network now? Better still, how long is it going to take me to get through …
The advent of smart phones and tablets has been a rise, nearly on pace with that of the “Cloud”. This cloud concept has made data highly available and convenient for the end user to have on the go. If I were to think about just a few years ago, if I wanted to do anything, …
It used to be, back when you still thought servers were the way to go (you don’t anymore right?), backups were typically done by tape drive, external hard drive or backup server (with a tape drive or external hard drive). And the fantastic price you’d have to pay for all this would be in the …
For the anachronism, we’re back to having everything centralized on a server and nightly backups to tape or (if you were very cool) to an external drive or backup server. The usual, throw all your eggs in one basket then pay a typically unreliable fox a lot of money to look after it. We’ll look …
A Head in the Clouds – Document Storage (Part 5) Read More »
I’m not really going to focus on accounting software here, we did that in a previous post. Now it’s where your software is and how it’s accessed. I’m going to use Quickbooks, just as a placeholder here. Insert your own, as applicable. Ordinarily, you’d have a server running Quickbooks and its Database Server software in …
For word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and the like, most people in this country use Microsoft Office. Which typically means storing the documents on your computer, paying $300+ per computer in licensing fees every few years and dealing with periodic, problematic updates and speed issues with your computer, which DOES have a shelf life. Which we’ll …
Traditionally, you’d use Exchange, Groupwise or something in that vein and tie it into Outlook or Lotus Notes. This meant having a server, purchasing licenses for the server and every single workstation that it was installed on. We’re talking $10k+ of expenditures for what most people use to check their email and have a shared …
A Head in the Cloud – Email/Collaboration (Part 2) Read More »
You hear a lot today about doing business “in the cloud”. So, apart from being some amorphous internet method of maybe doing things, what is it and how can it benefit you? Over the coming weeks, we’ll explore that and more. First, a definition: Simply put, “the cloud” can be either owned by you or …
