Business Computing Whitepaper: Are You In The Dark About The Cloud? The term 'cloud-computing' is being used more and more, but what does it mean? Broadly, it means to perform computing functions on systems that are physically located somewhere on the Internet.
You may not know this, but you've actually been doing cloud computing for years.
For instance, you may use an email box from Yahoo, AOL, Gmail or another provider.
Since the server that's housing the e-mail is somewhere on the Internet and the owner is allowing you to check your e-mail from their website, you are actually performing your e-mail functions 'in the cloud'.
As another example, you may use a VoIP service such as Vonage or Skype.
Since you're using software (or an Internet phone that contains software) to talk through your Internet connection, and you're using a server that's located somewhere on the Internet, you are talking 'through the cloud'.
Cloud computing allows you to take advantage of services and features that you may not be able to afford or support by owning all of the equipment and/or software required to run it.
For instance, if you're a small business, it is probably not worth owning your own web server and putting it in your office just for the purpose of hosting your own website.
Instead, it's much more cost-effective to pay a hosting provider or Cloud Computing Service Provider (CCSP) a few dollars per month to host your website on their servers.
With the economy forcing businesses to cut costs, moving daily computing functions to 'the cloud' allows the business to reduce their internal I.
T.
support costs.
A server in the cloud is usually owned by a cloud provider and simply rented, therefore the cloud/hosting provider has the burden of maintaining and upgrading the physical hardware and/or software.
Also, with more companies saving money by allowing workers to work from home, cloud computing ensures that all of the remote workers have the same I.
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luxuries as the office staff; such as shared files, remote desktops and even telephone extensions.
Another feature of cloud-computing is scale.
Most CCSPs charge just for the features or services that you use.
This allows you to pay as you grow or pay less if your needs shrink.
Perhaps you have a seasonal peak and need more computing resources for a couple of months.
Cloud computing allows you to scale-up and scale-back on an as-needed basis.
Security is one of the biggest concerns for businesses considering moving some or all of their computing to the cloud.
Many company managers think that by housing their own servers, the data is more secure.
In fact, the opposite is mostly the norm.
In most cases, CCSPs house their cloud servers in secure data centers.
Most data centers offer their cloud computing service provider's high-security, high-availability and redundancy.
Data centers have sophisticated redundant connections to the Internet, huge power rooms with refrigerator sized battery backups, truck-trailer sized diesel generators, advanced cooling systems, multi-layer biometric entry systems, surveillance systems and armed security guards.
Of course, another form of security is from hackers.
Most CCSPs have firewalls and intrusion detection systems for their network, as a threat could potentially take down their entire network so it's in their best interest to protect against any down-time from an attack.
Depending on the type of cloud services you use, it may be up to you to protect against common threats such as viruses, trojans and worms.
Be sure to discuss your specific security concerns with your CCSP.
More and more companies are now required to meet certain compliancy requirements.
A medical office for instance must meet HIPAA regulations which call for making sure access to information is secured.
Cloud computing may make it much easier to manage who has access to sensitive data because management is usually centralized.
Also, most cloud-servers require either SSL and/or VPN secure connections in order to access information that is stored on them.
This means that the information sent between your computer and the cloud servers is secure, just like when you login to banking websites.
Cloud-Computing service examples: Messaging In the Cloud: Most people these days have multiple computers and electronic devices i.
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; your desktop computer at work, your laptop or IPAD when you travel, and your mobile phone that's never more than 3 feet away.
It's great to have all of these devices but it can be cumbersome to deal with 3 different versions of your e-mail, contacts and calendar items.
Your phone may have one set of contacts while your computer at work will have a different set and the information may be different even for the same person! By using the cloud for messaging, your contacts, calendar and e-mail is stored centrally and all of your devices are updated by the cloud.
For instance, if you add a calendar item to your mobile device, your device will push that appointment to the cloud.
The server in the cloud will then push that same calendar item to your desktop at work and your laptop.
If you update someone's phone number in your contact list, then it gets immediately pushed to all of your devices, all at lightning speeds.
Everything is synced at all times.
Data Backups In the Cloud: Have you ever lost data due to a hard drive crash or perhaps a laptop was dropped or stolen? Most companies would answer "yes.
" Everyone agrees that a data backup plan is critical and required for any business.
Some companies choose to backup to tapes, some use hard drives and some have now begun to backup their data to the cloud.
No matter what option is chosen, it's always a good idea to have multiple backups.
Backing up to the cloud ensures the data is stored in a secure location and many cloud backup services allow data to be backed up as frequently as you wish so you can be comfortable that there's an up-to-date copy.
If you need to restore a file from the cloud, you simply load the backup/restore software provided to you, and you select what file(s) to restore.
Restoring from anywhere is a major feature of cloud back-ups.
In the event of a catastrophe such as a fire at your office, or a weather event that prevents you from getting access to your systems, you can restore your critical data from the cloud to any other computer or server and be back in business quickly.
Business Phones In the Cloud: Have you ever used Skype or Vonage to make a call over your Internet connection? If so, then you've already used Voice over IP (VoIP).
More and more companies are now looking at ways to cut their communication expenses while increasing their communication efficiencies.
Utilizing VoIP in businesses can do just this but companies need to have features that they are accustomed to such as multi-line, call conferencing, call transferring, voice mail, auto-attendants (press 1 for sales...
) etc etc.
There's a revolution happening right now where companies are switching from the traditional analog telephone service to VoIP.
On average, VoIP costs about 50% less than traditional telephone service.
Business phone service in the cloud also adds a tremendous amount of versatility.
For instance, if a company has 3 locations, they would all share the same cloud-based phone system.
This consolidates the communications costs and allows employees to dial from location to location as if they were in the same office (no long distance fees!) Also, perhaps an office is forced to close due to a weather event while another office is available.
Calls from the closed location could automatically route to the second location so business is not affected.
Telecommuters could use an IP telephone at their home and have access to the cloud, hence offering them all of the features as if they were in the office.
Applications In the Cloud: Software licensing costs are a major capital expense for most companies.
In fact, in many offices they exceed the cost of the workstation.
Software companies release major upgrades annually or bi-annually that require you to pay almost the same amount as a new license.
These license costs can become a burden to any company's bottom line.
With recent advances in server operating system technology, many companies are now choosing to run applications in the cloud.
This means that instead of purchasing licenses for software, you actually subscribe to use the software over the Internet.
Traditionally, as an example, if you wanted Microsoft Office you would purchase per-workstation licenses for about $375 each and install them on the workstations with supplied license keys.
In a cloud environment, you would subscribe to use Microsoft Office for a nominal monthly fee per user.
You would receive a shortcut link from your Cloud Computing Service Provider.
You simply copy the shortcut to each of the workstations that will be using Microsoft Office and when you double-click on the link, the software runs just like it normally would, but it's actually running from the cloud.
The user doesn't notice any difference with functions, printing or saving the documents.
When upgrades are available, the CCSP simply sends you a new shortcut.
As you can see, running applications in the cloud have the ability to save business huge amounts of money and help them scale as needed.
Private Servers In The Cloud: Do you currently have self-owned server(s) in your office? If you do then you know how expensive they can be to operate, manage and maintain.
Some common operational costs include making sure the network and server is secure, the power and UPS batteries are ready to go in case of a power failure, back-ups are done in case the server crashes or is damaged or stolen and if you have remote users, you need to maintain a solid Internet connection.
Many companies are now looking to update or upgrade their servers and instead are moving to a private server in the cloud.
This allows them to get the most recent Microsoft server operating system with all of the latest features and security enhancements.
When you order a private server in the cloud, your CCSP creates a server based on your needs, such as operating system version, size of hard drive space, memory size and CPU speed.
Once the server is created on one of their servers in the cloud, then you are given remote access to it so you can load your software applications on it and begin moving files from your old server(s).
In some cases, your CCSP will install applications for you such as Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, SharePoint, or specialized applications such as time and billing systems, EMR software, design software, or any other application you use on a regular basis.
Your users then securely login to the server in the cloud from a program that's already on their computer called 'Remote Desktop'.
Once your users log in, they run the applications as they normally would have if the server was in your office and the applications were installed on their computer.
The nice thing for the user is no matter where they are; traveling, home, or sitting in the office, the files and the desktop experience is always the same.
Also, since the applications are running on the server instead of a local computer, the workstation speeds have no bearing as to how fast the software runs.
This allows a company to save money upgrading workstations.
Cloud servers are also great in the case where businesses have multiple locations since all users across the enterprise can use the server in the cloud.
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