The Cloud and your business

‘The Cloud’ is quickly becoming the new norm in IT. You’ve probably heard about it and no doubt been told your company should be getting in on the action. But what exactly is it, and what can it do for you?

By Ian Sutherland, business development manager, Your Office Anywhere

Your office likely has a powerful computer which is a central resource for files, emails and other important data. It’s up to your organisation to keep this server running, updated, safe and secure. The Cloud alternative is to rent this computing power in someone else’s data centre, accessed via the internet. Up-front costs and hardware maintenance are covered by the provider, you will be responsible for configuration, backups, and purchasing your own software licences.

This option means pretty much all of your organisation’s computing happens off-site, and you pay for access. This is a fantastic development in office IT and means you and your employees can get to your company data, applications and more from anywhere that has an internet connection. That’s in the office, at home, in a hotel room or even on the road. Backups, antivirus, support, maintenance, most software licences and upgrades are included in the price, and you don’t need to be an IT whizz to tap in.

While it’s possible to run virtually your entire IT system via the cloud, in reality a majority of our customers operate a hybrid system. This usually involves an on-site system supplemented by ‘hosted’ options for specific applications or circumstances. It’s quicker and cheaper than investing in a sizeable hardware upgrade merely for that one task or application. If your hardware is underperforming, there’s almost certainly a Cloud alternative that could offer more and save you money. We’re one of the country’s longest established cloud providers, and we’d be happy to talk you through your options.