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We've all have heard the term "Cloud Computing". It's all
the rage and it's become the phrase of the day.
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The term "cloud" was inspired by the symbol that is often
used to represent the Internet in a flowchart or diagram. It's
basically another term for the Internet, such as 'the web'.
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When you combine it with the word "Computing", the meaning
gets much bigger and a lot fuzzier. In general, it's a term for
anything that involves delivering services over the Internet, (i.e
online backups and data storage, online applications such as a word
processors or spreadsheets, and online calendars).
Examples of use:
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Virtual IT
(or Virtual Servers) - utilize remote, third-party servers as
extensions to a company's local IT network. (Amazon EC2
service (Elastic Compute Cloud)
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Software
- utilize commercial software applications (Word, Excel, etc.)
via the Internet rather than being installed on your local
computer. (Google Apps)
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Network storage
- back up or archive data across the Internet to a provider
without needing to know the physical location of storage. (DropBox,
Carbonite backup service, and the Icloud service.)
Advantages:
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Businesses of all sizes should use cloud computing, though
for different reasons. A small business would be competitive with a
bigger company which has more security and reliability needs. Now they
can have the same computing resources with the cloud.
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The Cloud also frees businesses from being hardware
dependent. Replacing your hardware can be very expensive and with cloud
computing it becomes unnecessary.
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Scalability - Grows with your business. If you need more
storage space or more processing power you can pick up the phone and
order it.
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It's a fixed cost for services and allows for easy IT
budgeting. No more replacing hardware as it becomes outdated
As technology improves, hardware is getting cheaper
and it's often easier and more cost effective to replace a computer than
it is to fix it.
A lot people aren’t used to this 'throw away'
approach. Many have been using computers since they cost thousands of
dollars and are accustomed to maximizing the investment by getting as
much use as possible out of it.
Reasons why it money would be
better spent replacing a problematic PC older than 3 years:
Productivity: Almost everyone who
gets a new computer talks about how much faster it is compared to the
old one. For business owners, that means your employees can be more
productive, and hopefully make you more money.
Data protection: While it is always
good to test your backup strategy, doing so by experiencing a failed
hard drive is not what I would recommend. A 3+year old hard drive is in
some cases a ticking time bomb. It is much easier to replace a computer
before the hard drive dies.
New programs and features: Often
times, we have customers that contact us because they have a new program
they want to install, but it won’t run on the computers they are
currently using. This means that if they want to run the new program,
all computers need to be upgraded or usually replaced.
Warranties: As a machine gets older,
it's often more difficult to find replacement parts for some components.
By being covered by a manufacturer’s warranty, we can typically receive
all necessary parts the next business day, free of charge.
Budgets: When you drive a computer
until the wheels fall off, it's difficult to predict what the expenses
will be. Computers often die a slow death, requiring on-site visits to
replace failed components and resulting employee downtime. If a company
decides to replace all computers every three or four years, it is easy
to plan and budget in advance which machines will need to be replaced
during that year.
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