The Cloud Means No More Stormy Weather
Many small firms are pretty busy handling their own business, and don’t give much thought to what they would do if a natural disaster from a bad snowstorm to much worse hit their physical location and cut power, or physical access to the building. What if the equipment storing all of your data and software needed to run day to day operations became inaccessible? What would happen to your ability to continue to serve your clients or customers?
Though we call it the cloud, with images of gray skies and rain, the cloud can be a ray of sunshine. It is an excellent and cost effective resource for smaller firms to make sure they maintain 24/7 access even in bad weather. Because everything is maintained off site, you can (1) bypass disruption or damage that may have occurred at your physical site, and (2) access what you need to keep your business functioning from any remote location.
Small firms need to realize they are most vulnerable to business disruptions, as they have less capital and fewer resources to carry them through a bad period. The cloud represents a simple and value driven resource to address business continuity issues that could turn a small firm’s business upside down.
Your Front Door is Talking.....Welcome in IoT!
If you’ve been following the news, the Internet of Things (IoT) is getting increasing attention. You’re probably also thinking this is some Silicon Valley fancy thing that will take years to reach the rest of us.
Not really. You probably already have some items of your own tied into the Internet of Things.
First of all, what is the IoT? Simply, it is any object that collects data about itself or its surroundings, and then transfers that data across a network to some other object, which can then make use of that data. For example, if you have a baby monitor that sends crib pictures from upstairs to your phone, you’re tied into the IoT.
But what about business people? Where is it showing up in the workplace? You may have security cameras tied to a network where they can be monitored by a PC or phone. A front door lock that can be remotely opened via phone. A thermostat that can changed by the same phone. Internal lights that go on when you phone approach. All of these are part of the Internet of Things.
If you have questions about whether being tied into IoT presents a data security issue or hacking threat, you should contact a service consultant to discuss these issues. Headlines are now appearing about hacking into the IoT for nefarious purposes. It is a good idea to stay ahead of the curve because as a business, data is a revenue-critical issue. Seriously, you don’t want the front door telling someone your client’s private data.
DEMYSTIFYING THE CLOUD IN LAYMAN’S TERMS
INTRODUCTION
For several years, cloud technology has been one of the most talked about subjects in business technology circles. By now, most small-to-medium sized business (SMB) owners have heard that cloud computing is transforming the way their peers do business, and they’ve been inundated with talk of how the cloud enables small businesses to cut IT costs and operate more efficiently.
But for many small businesses, the cloud is a pretty (ahem) nebulous idea, and they have a pretty wispy notion of its potential business value.
For example. 54% of SMBs told Wakefield Research – a market research firm - that they’ve never used cloud technology. Of that figure, it was found that roughly 95% of them were already in the cloudand had been for years. They just didn’t recognize it.
The purpose of this e-guide is to explain cloud computing in layman’s terms. For decision makers who aren’t necessarily technology gurus, any mention of the cloud can sometimes set off a “Stranger Danger” alarm. SMBs often resist change because they fear the risks and costs of investing in new technology and they lack knowledge and support.
We’ve reached a point now where it’s obvious the cloud is here to stay and its economic benefits simply make too much sense to ignore. Since most start-ups and small businesses run with exceptionally strict budgets, bearing the financial brunt of owning, maintaining, and securing their technology may be impossible. Understanding the cloud – what it is, its benefits, its risks, and how to manage those risks – is critical.
A SIMPLE VIEW OF THE CLOUD
Let’s try describing the cloud for once without any tech lingo. Picture for a moment a really cramped office space. You and a few coworkers sit in tight quarters with disheveled desktops buried in mounds of files and paperwork. There is absolutely no room for storage. And it will be years before you’ll be able to afford a larger office space.
Your building manager offers to rent you an empty file cabinet in the basement. Although this basement space is shared with other tenants, only you and your team will have a key to this locked file cabinet to store and retrieve documents and files as you wish. Your rent is relatively cheap compared to other tenants since you’re only paying for the file cabinet and not the larger storage areas they’re renting.
Suddenly, those once cluttered desktops are cleared, leaving some actual physical space to work. Work can be done much more efficiently without the complications that once hindered it. This is close to what the cloud does for the backend of small business IT infrastructure.
THE CLOUD IS A TECHNOLOGY EQUALIZER
Historically, the technology used by larger companies has never been available to smaller businesses. Most SMBs have neither the hardware budget nor internal support to “own” a massive internal network infrastructure.
Previously, only large organizations have had the money to invest in IT infrastructure. But the cloud truly democratizes computing and levels the playing field. In many ways, it’s the great equalizer, giving companies of any size the ability to store information at a remote datacenter rather than on-premises. It gives small businesses the ability to do large-scale business at a lower cost.
THE CLOUD ISN’T NEW, YOU’VE BEEN USING IT FOR YEARS
The cloud is more or less a sexy buzzword for the Internet... or at least the next evolution of the Internet. Many SMBs don’t even realize that they’re already in the cloud and have been for more than a decade. Anyone that has ever used a hosted email provider such as Gmail has already had sensitive data stored, accessed and exchanged in the cloud. Cloud-based email hosting was one of the first and most broadly adopted cloud services used for both personal and professional use.
If you’re using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or photo sharing sites like Instagram, you’re already part of the public cloud. Do you shop at Amazon or order movies through Netflix? You’re again in the cloud.
Since SMBs don’t typically have the resources to build private clouds, most rely on public clouds. Public cloud deployments are completely virtual, which means less hands-on management is required since the infrastructure (hardware such as servers, storage devices, networking equipment, and firewalls) is all off-premises. In an economy where SMBs find themselves having to stretch their technology investment as far as it can go, the benefit of not having to pay for hardware, employees to maintain and manage that hardware, software licensing, deployment, and updating is critical.
One analogy commonly used is the public utility. Obviously nobody would expect you to power your home or business with your very own electrical plant. The costs to do so would be exorbitant and the maintenance would be impossible. Consequently, you and others within the same electric grid share in the overall cost of the infrastructure to generate and transmit electric power into your home. Being part of the grid enables us all to have access to affordable power based on our usage – just as the cloud makes business solutions that were once only affordable to large enterprises reasonable for SMBs by spreading costs across a network of users and charging only for actual usage.
Companies typically focus on offering one of three categorized cloud-computing services that are referred to as layers in the cloud:
- SOFTWARE as a SERVICE or SaaS
Remote services accessed online predominantly used for office processes such as email, file storage/sharing, communication, bookkeeping - Examples: Salesforce’s CRM, Citrix’s GoToMeeting, Google Apps, Box.net, Dropbox.
- PLATFORM as a SERVICE or PaaS
Web application management, design, storage, security, and app development/ hosting - Examples: Google App Engine, Amazon Web Services Elastic Beanstalk, Windows Azure, Salesforce’s Force. com, Appistry’s CloudIQ, and Engine Yard.
- INFRASTRUCTURE as a SERVICE or IaaS
Outsources hardware needs by renting SMBs their own offsite server, storage, and dedicated network and hardware - Examples Rackspace, Red Hat, VMWare, Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, and Microsoft.
Basically, the cloud hosts an application for any type of work process needed by a SMB.
WHY USE THE CLOUD?
Reduction of Costs: Significant savings can be achieved since the cloud’s mass scale computing minimizes onsite physical storage hardware and internal IT staffing.
Anytime, Anywhere Access: Since data access is no longer restricted to a solitary employee or physical device, users can access, share and collaborate in the cloud whenever and from wherever they please. Examples of cloud-based applications include Google Drive (Docs), Trello, Booker and PipeDrive.
Better Collaboration: The cloud is available on-demand to computers and other devices from any location at any point of time. This allows for better collaborative efforts among teams given today’s increasingly dispersed mobile workforce. Today’s SMB can share data and collaborate across their organization in a way that was once only possible with a highly competent System Administrator and Microsoft Sharepoint.
Greater Scalability: Cloud-based services offer SMBs greater flexibility to scale IT needs up or down as the varying business environment demands.
Faster Deployment: Cloud-based services can be deployed within just an hour or a few days rather than the weeks or months it often takes to strategically plan, buy, build and implement an internal IT infrastructure.
Environmental Friendliness: The cloud’s energy efficiency is attractive to any company conscientious about the environment and wanting to be “green.” The Berkeley Lab conducted a six-month study that determined that shifting 86 million U.S. office workers to the cloud reduced energy usage by 87 percent. That’s enough left over electricity to power the city of Los Angeles for one year.
Improved Security: Although many SMBs cite security concerns as the reason they’re reluctant to move to the cloud, there are actually very few data breaches involving cloud providers. Of the reported 404 data breaches in the U.S. in 2013, roughly 270 of them were due to lost, stolen, or discarded devices and paper records, rogue employees, payment fraud, and unintentional employee error. Data in the cloud may actually be more secure than data stored on computers, laptops, and company servers with an array of security vulnerabilities. Unlike a laptop, the cloud can’t be left behind in a hotel lobby. Most SMBs cannot secure their datacenter with the advanced tools, encryption methods, frequent testing, and third–party certifications used by cloud service providers.
Business Continuity: Data storage and backup is one of the most frequently used cloud-based services amongst SMBs. Many cloud service providers offer SMBs unlimited storage capability, automated data sync and backup processes that reduce or eliminate downtime events.
THE NEED FOR CLOUD MONITORING
SMBs who are still uneasy about a move to the cloud may want to consider cloud monitoring through a local managed services provider (MSP). Cloud monitoring helps SMBs deploy to the cloud with confidence. The idea of relinquishing control to a third-party service provider tends to make many SMBs understandably tense. Cloud monitoring offers the worried SMB owner or Chief Information Officer (CIO) aroundthe-clock end-to-end visibility into the performance of their cloud services and IT infrastructure.
Cloud monitoring supports a hybrid deployment architecture by unifying servers deployed in multiple environments – whether it’s on-premise, in a data center, or in a public cloud such as Rackspace or Amazon - into one single dashboard to simplify 24/7 performance monitoring. This allows SMBs to oversee the performance of any servers and applications deployed to the cloud to maintain optimal uptime and ensure a positive end-user experience.
Cloud monitoring services offer SMBs proactive monitoring, automated alerts, alert escalation, and full problem resolution support by way of a fully dedicated 24/7 network operations center (NOC). Cloud security is also carefully monitored with frequent audits to proactively identify and address possible breach vulnerabilities.
SUMMARY
This isn’t a dark or ominous cloud hovering over us. It’s fluffy, white and full of possibilities. It’s a “happy little cloud” as famed PBS oil painter Bob Ross would say. The benefits of reduced costs and complexity, flexible scalability, and lower per-unit cost are simply too alluring to ignore.
Concerns about security are valid but small businesses today may actually be exposing themselves to more breach vulnerabilities by not being in the cloud. The notion that data must be on-site to truly be secure is as misguided as the belief that money is safer tucked beneath a mattress than in a bank. Top cloudservice providers are capable of investing far more into their security than any SMB running their own technology.
Cloud monitoring services adequately address any perceived loss of visibility SMBs commonly fear by taking to the cloud. It also simplifies the adoption of cloud solutions for SMBs, setting them on a path to progressively forge ahead with business goals and objectives and leverage new technology with confidence.
Benefits of Using VoIP Technology
Benefits of Using VoIP Technology
More and more businesses are implementing Voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP technology because of its versatility, flexibility and cost effectiveness. With new developments in this technology, the scope of its applications is widening. It is becoming more than just voice communications technology. That is why businesses of all sizes are migrating at an increasing rate. Here is a short list of some of the benefits.
Versatility/Flexibility: There are many VoIP service companies that have been working feverishly to enhance the use of this technology. They are bundling up other communication applications into a single unified communication platform to increase the efficiency for businesses. This means all modes of communication such as voice, fax, video, web conferencing and emails can be utilized, using a single software application. The ability of this application to convert voice into an email or fax into an email can bring a tremendous amount of efficiency to business operations. You don’t need to sign up for a separate service for a telephone or video conference. An incoming phone call can be received on a mobile phone and regular phone simultaneously. That means there are fewer missed important phone calls, and less wasted time on ‘phone-tag.’ An employee can receive an important fax on a laptop while sitting in an Internet café or within range of a Wi-Fi hot spot, and can redirect it to an associate within minutes with a few keystrokes. The list of benefits goes on.
Reduced cost: There are many ways VoIP can lower communications cost thus significantly enhancing the revenue. Here are some of the financial benefits of implementing VoIP.
- Cost per phone call: Making long distance or international phone calls using landlines or mobile phones can be very expensive. Charges incurred at per-minute rate can add up quickly. When you conduct business from multiple locations VoIP applications allow you to make calls from PC to PC that are free if they are within the same network. That could be significant to eliminate long distance charges if two locations are hundreds of miles apart. You can also pay a low monthly flat fee and make an unlimited number of calls, including international calls. This means much less usage of your mobile phone-minutes.
- Operational costs: You don’t need separate networks for data and voice communications. Everything can be done using the data network. Specially designed phones with VoIP technology can be managed right from your desktops. There are a few things at work here. First of all, you have the potential to be eliminating traditional “phone” lines, usually a significant monthly fixed cost, in addition to the per minute usage costs. Paying per minute remains a major issue if you do any international calling, or have offices located in other countries, where per minute rates may not have dropped like those in the US. Another operational cost that goes away are the labor costs involved in moving employees from office to office. Reconfiguring numbers and phones can still require physical changes. Even if they are only software changes, there is a cost to pay the technician who handles these reconfigurations.
- Infrastructure cost: With this technology your infrastructure cost is greatly reduced. For example, you have to pay more for the telephone extensions using traditional PBX and key systems. Using VoIP allows you to run those extensions right from your computers. Dual-mode phones can be used with this technology after making minor configuration changes. That allows the user to switch the use of a dual phone from cellular to a local Wi-Fi environment, reducing the need to carry a regular phone and a cell phone. That means fewer devices to manage.
Summary: After our discussion, the significance of implementation of VoIP can’t be overstated. Every business strives for better revenue. This new technology offers many ways to cut costs and bring efficiency by unifying all modes of communication onto a single platform. Efficiency and lower costs are always synonymous with greater revenue. Get in touch with a Managed Service Provider and ask them how they can bring you on board with this great technology called VoIP.
Tech Quick Tips - Understanding Cloud Technology
1. What is the Cloud?
The cloud is virtual and therefore does not require any hardware of your own to deliver a service. Cloud technology can deliver that service to you, without having to install anything or have it on a server at your business. This is something that you can access remotely, or via the Internet through your web browser. Offsite, secure third party data centers manage all of your cloud data so that you can access it at your convenience.
2. You May Already be Using the Cloud
Are you using Gmail? Amazon Music? A Kindle? Dropbox? These are all cloud services that store the data you access. All you have to do is log in to their servers to get what you need. If you use an Apple iPhone or iPad, then you're familiar with the iCloud service, the cloud technology that allows you to sync and upload your photos and contacts.
3. Why Use the Cloud?
The cloud is convenient for accessing and backing up data no matter where you go. With it, you can access servers anywhere, rather than just locally from your office. This allows you to perform your job duties at home and on the go! There is no need to carry around (and risk losing) USB drives with sensitive information on them. If you lose that USB drive, then your files are gone forever. If you back them up to the cloud or store them there, however, you can easily retrieve that data.
4. Why is the Term “Cloud” Used?
There is both a literal and figurative meaning here. Have you ever laid down in the grass, and looked up at the clouds in the sky? Oh, look, an elephant! A boat! Oh nice, a dinosaur! But the person next to you may not see the same shapes. They may see a sandwich, a skyscraper or an airplane in the clouds instead. The possibilities are almost endless, and not everyone has the same vision. Cloud technology is similar, offering a plethora of possibilities to help support and scale your business. Also, clouds are generally always above us. Just head on up, and grab whatever you need on-demand. The sky is always accessible.
So, you can store and access files in the Cloud. You can use cloud-hosted applications, like Gmail and GoogleDocs. Finally, the cloud gives you access to your data anywhere with a network connection. This all sounds great, right? It is, but as with anything on the Internet, these services need to be used responsibly. Is your IT services provider helping to manage this?
Fully Managed Backup & Disaster Recovery
Fully Managed Backup & Disaster Recovery
If the power in your office fails tonight, and all of your computers crash, how quickly can you recover? And more importantly, at what cost? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 93% of companies that experience a disaster go out of business within 5 years – even if they can recover in the short term.
We’re here to ensure your business doesn’t become another statistic. Our business continuity solution is about more than just backup – it’s designed to quickly revive your network following any unplanned downtime, and ensure your employees are operating productively in almost no time at all.
• Complete end-to-end management of backups
• Block-level encryption
• Continuous Data Protection technology
• Fully-managed & monitored
• Cloud replication
• Off-site virtualization
Unparalleled Peace of Mind
In today’s always-on business landscape, maintaining an effective backup and disaster recovery (BDR) strategy is becoming more important than ever before. Data is playing an increasingly critical role in decision-making processes, and the costs and risks associated with downtime are skyrocketing – not to mention the damage your brand and reputation can suffer in the event of a disaster.
Net DirXions’s business continuity solution includes features like continuous data protection, cloud-based replication and recovery, and more – all for one low fixed monthly price per protected server.
What does that mean? It means you can rest easy knowing that your critical data, emails, reports, and other information are all protected, backed up and securely tucked away until you need them.
Direct Support
Having a backup appliance in place is only the first step in a successful business continuity strategy. To minimize the risk of data loss as much as possible, you’ll want to have technicians proactively monitoring the entire backup process to ensure things are working as expected.
That’s why we’ve got a dedicated team keeping a watchful eye over your protected servers, ready to jump into action should any problems arise. And if the worst should happen, don’t worry – we’ll have you back up and running quickly.
