Brave New Computing World

These days, many business owners see advantages to having their heads, or at least their computer data, in a cloud

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Microsoft recently reported some confusing statistics. In a survey the company commissioned, 29 percent of small businesses said they used cloud computing services – but only 20 percent of respondents said they knew what cloud computing was.

How can that be? Simple. Many people are using clouds but don’t realize it. You might as well know what cloud computing is – the term isn’t going away anytime soon, and once you understand it, you can decide if it’s something your business should be using more or less often.

 

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing describes services delivered in real time over the Internet. The services can be free or subscription-based and can include software, file storage, synchronization, backup, and other utilities.

Think you’ve never used a cloud? Think again. Have you ever uploaded photos to Flickr or Snapfish to share with family and friends? Your photos are on a cloud. Other common applications people may not recognize as cloud computing services include Gmail, Hotmail and Skype.

For businesses, Dropbox is a popular online backup, file sync and sharing service, and many businesses use Basecamp for project management. Microsoft Office 365 lets users of Office, SharePoint, Lync and Exchange link to these applications anywhere, anytime – whether “user” means one person or a huge company.

Simply put, users don’t have to be in the office to access Office. Accessing accounting software like QuickBooks via cloud allows a business owner, an outside accountant, and the company bookkeeper to see the company finances together in real time – even if they’re all stuck at home during a snowstorm.

 

Clouds save money

Many companies began using more cloud computing services in the past couple of years because budgets were tight and they were willing to try anything to save money and stay afloat. By using a cloud, a company can cut down on the number of people needed to handle information technology (IT) in-house.

No one is needed on the payroll to maintain and troubleshoot servers, and that saves money. In fact, no server is needed at all, and that saves even more. Software accessed through a cloud is considerably cheaper than packaged software (and it eliminates all that packaging, thus helping the environment). Among other virtues:

Clouds are simple. Generally, cloud-based services are easy to use. They require only a computer, a browser, and an Internet connection. Unlike a server, they require no maintenance from the user.

Clouds protect data. If something were to happen to your office – fire, flood or other natural disaster – your data could be lost if it were stored on a server on site. Using a cloud computing service for data storage means your data is safe even when your building is not.

Clouds make a business truly mobile. Laptops and smart phones have made businesses mobile, but cloud computing takes it to a new level. Now you don’t need your laptop to access your company’s information – you can use any computer, and you can work on a project in real time with co-workers from anywhere you, or they, happen to be.

 

Not without risk

Beyond those benefits, cloud computing levels the playing field somewhat between big and small companies by providing David access to the kind of infrastructure that only Goliath had in the past. It’s like having a huge IT department that you never have to think about.

But clouds can also be risky, to a degree. An actual cloud is vapor: There’s nothing you can hold on to. Cloud computing is the same. While it’s cheaper and easier not to have to buy, store, maintain and update servers and packaged software, cloud computing services require a certain amount of trust on your part.

Be aware of the risks involved in putting your data in the clouds. One risk is that you can never be 100 percent certain who has access to your information once it has migrated beyond the hard drives and backup storage devices in your office. Another is that the information, and sometimes the applications you need to use it, may be available only when you are connected to the Internet and the service is up and running.

A third risk is losing ownership of your data. Before using a cloud computing service, find out if you still own your data once it goes into the cloud. Ask if you can share data between cloud services if you plan to use more than one. Determine what happens to data if you terminate a cloud relationship or the company providing the cloud service goes out of business. Can you get your data back? And what format will it be in? How can you be sure all other copies are destroyed?

 

Know your rights

To protect your company data, read the fine print about security and privacy before signing on to use any cloud computing service. Usually, convenience outweighs risk if you are using a trusted, well-known provider, as they will protect your information with passwords, firewalls, and all manner of security, while keeping it in a sophisticated data center.

Cloud computing experts have likened security breaches to plane crashes: They happen so rarely that when they do, they get a lot of attention. Still, using clouds, like choosing whether to fly in a plane, depends on your comfort level. You may be perfectly comfortable storing e-mail on a cloud, while being reluctant to put years’ worth of financial data out there.

You’re probably doing some cloud computing now. It’s up to you whether you want to migrate more of your business functions to this relatively new and growing computing model.



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