Cloud Computing

Global Digital Works
Eye on Technology:
Have you ever been listening to the radio and, a commercial comes on talking about for a reasonable monthly fee, you can have an email account that will, they will take care of all email archiving, or they will take care of all file storage, and they take care your file server backup needs. In short we will take care of all of this for a fee.
Folks, this is cloud computing and, it is not just for the medium to large business. This is something that the small business should look into when attempting to cut cost and, as a business owner I believe we all look for ways to cut cost and grow the business. If you are a conscience business owner you are always looking for ways to cut cost. This includes the 1 or 2 person shop.
It is said that it will cut you IT cost.
This article will attempt to demystify what Cloud Computing.

What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is defined as:
Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet, (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud computing)
Using servers hosted on the Internet for computational purposes. Cloud computing vendors build Internet accessible data centers and sell computing (wekti.com/glossary/.)
If you are downloading music, buying airline tickets online, participating in a social network, or using hosted e-mail, chances are you are one of more than one billion users already accessing IT Services. That’s Cloud computing!

Why is it important?

Integrating cloud computing into your business can help you:
• Be more responsive to customer needs
• Deploy new services quickly
• Capitalize on a new business model
• Expand or contract Business resources quickly and for less money
• Move your IT resources from a capital to an operating expense on a metered basis
After explaining this lets take this reality one more step. As of writing this article and, continuing my research, what is now a reality is making the desktop part of the cloud computing experience.
What does this mean to the Small business owner on a budget? Or the average user that has a home based business and on a budget?
It means that you can cut the cost of having a tech person on call or billing you for work that can be done for a monthly fee instead of an hourly fee.
It means you may not have to spend any time on your Network system making sure that critical information is backed up in a timely manner and in a safe place.
It means you have what the larger companies have at more than half the cost.
Done right Cloud computing can allow the small business security, virus protection, the backing up of mission critical data that will help the small entities conduct business and tap the new area that will bring in added dollars.

What does Cloud Computing include?
Email, Database Management, Network security, System Backup, Virus Protection, and the storing of Mission critical data created as a result of doing business.
Cloud computing done correctly will help your business grow to the point that you are no longer a small business, without the headaches of Information Technology issues that will occur.