This white paper discusses the impact of Cloud Computing and what it means for you,the small business. It discusses business growth,hardware,internet broadband use,software,business information,service,support and monitoring. It outlines some important considerations:
- How much you will be saving in hardware and software costs if you move on-line
- Whether your internet connection can cope with the demand required
- What data and applications you actually need on-line
- The criticality and sensitivity of your data
- How much mobility you and your colleagues actually have now and where they work.
- Whether you want to outsource your critical applications and data to a service provider –and forsake some of the control and security you have currently.
The white paper then goes on to discuss what alternatives exist,looking into more detail around:
- Back-up of your PC / Server
- Email and Web hosting
- File storage and sharing
- Instant messaging
- Document editing / viewing on-line
Finally,the white paper suggests that the monthly cost of backups,email and other on-line services can easily outstrip the cost of provision on site,yet do not reduce the amount of administration or risk by the same proportion in managing your data,emails or websites.
Introduction to Cloud Computing
A lot of I.T. vendors that host their applications on-line are now selling solutions aimed at the small business sector. “Cloud Computing” is a term frequently bound about and can take on many forms. “Google Apps” is a simple example. Why all the hype? What is it? Should small businesses take advantage of this?
This document is aimed at small businesses of between 1 to 10 employees and aims to discuss “Cloud Computing”,and assess their impact to Small Businesses. It will provide the key criteria for a small business going through a decision making process and discuss the alternatives to on-line computing services.
Cloud Computing for the small business includes:
- Back-up of your PC / Server
- Email and Web hosting
- File storage and sharing (no more email attachments)
- Instant messaging (the equivalent of having a conversation / text messaging via a keyboard)
- Document editing / viewing on-line
An example is document editing. Traditionally a person would have an application sitting on their PC and use it to edit documents. This implies several things:
- The document and application is tied to where the computer is.
- You maintain the application by applying patches and updates.
- Sharing your document requires a number of transactions such as emailing as an attachment,printing and mailing,or saving it to a memory stick.
The Hyperbole
The reason why there is a lot of hyperbole is that Cloud Computing services provide increased mobility and collaboration to users – without the maintenance of software. What happens if you want to edit your document away from your PC? Or on your phone? On someone else’s PC –such as in an internet Cafe? Where should the document be and where is the application to edit it residing? Where is the nearest application you find compatible with the document you want to edit? And what happens when you want to share it with someone else?
With Cloud Computing someone else takes care of those questions for you. Now both documents and applications can reside in huge server farms dotted about the continent. Patching / upgrades and maintenance are all managed centrally on your behalf. Wherever there is internet connectivity you can access your documents. This frees you from your desk to work anywhere,so long as you have a PC / Laptop / Phone. Sharing your documents becomes a lot easier too;where access to on-line folders can be granted on-line to your friends or colleagues.
What does this mean? The advocates of Cloud Computing argue that you don’t have to spend additional money on hardware,and that employment of specialist staff is no longer an issue as both of these aspects are all taken care of by the service provider. They argue that now your only commitment is a monthly fixed fee. This is great for managing your costs. However is this picture wholly correct? Should a small business transfer all or some of its I.T. services on-line?
