Many people have heard about “Cloud Computing”, but aren’t sure what it means. And even though Microsoft is running a series of “To The Cloud!” TV commercials, I don’t think that’s helping – all I get from it is that somehow cloud computing involves fixing family photos. Not helpful!
The good news is that Computer Troubleshooters has been helping small businesses move into cloud computing solutions for over 4 years now. So here’s our definition: “Cloud Computing is when applications or functions are hosted by virtual computers in the internet, rather than a traditional physical computer or server in your office.”
The reason cloud computing is so popular right now is because it does three things really well:
1) It can reduce your expenses, especially for complex IT solutions.
2) It can give small businesses or departments access to solutions which would be far too expensive to implement on their own with traditional means.
3) It’s easily scalable, so as your business grows or downsizes you can easily adjust your IT expenses and usage accordingly.
So what sorts of Cloud Computing applications are popular in Anderson? Here’s the top solutions we’re selling today:
1) Hosted Business-class Email (Microsoft Exchange or similar)
2) Hosted Collaboration Solutions (Share documents & calendars with your team)
3) Cloud-hosted Phone System (no up front costs, low monthly expenses, and makes it easy for employees to take their phones home or to branch offices)
4) Online Backup (keep your data safe & secure in case a disaster hits your office)
5) Cloud-based CRM (keep your client & vendor info online & easily accessible, with powerful reporting and integration features)
6) Virtual Servers (why pay $2k up front for an office server when the same server can be hosted in the cloud for a low monthly fee?)
We also sell online virtual desktop solutions, but the pricing on those is still too high to make sense for most small businesses.
For a free consultation on whether a cloud computing solution makes sense for your business, give us a call anytime.
