The cloud is absolutely here and many of you already have your head in the cloud if you use Facebook, LinkedIn or maybe a product like Salesforce.com. Some of you are even moving your entire office to the cloud with a complete hosted solution like our Virtual Office product.
Consider a cloud provider like a utility. You turn on the light switch and you expect the lights to come on, same with a virtual office solution. But how do you decide if you’re ready for the cloud from an organizational standpoint?
Here are a few helpful tips:
1. If you are about to spend capital $$ on hardware and standard office software then you should consider the cloud as an option.
2. If you have a lot of remote offices or multiple users then the cloud makes a lot of sense.
3. If you want to save time and money on supporting and running the back-end of your computing environment then you’re a good candidate for the cloud.
What it really comes down to…the cloud is here and it’s only going to get bigger and be adopted more widely. My advice is to learn more about it now and be prepared to embrace it.
That being said, there are of course some disclaimers:
1. Be careful of whom you partner with, make sure they are an established company that will be around for years to come.
2. Make sure your data is not co-mingled with other company’s data in the cloud.
3. be sure you have the provider test your environment in the cloud and prove functionality before taking the plunge.
4. Be sure that the data is always encrypted and secured over multiple data centers or clouds.
These tips will help you in your quest to find the right solution but I cannot stress to you enough that you should consult with a knowledgeable party which has your best interests in mind. And now for my shameless plug…
Those people might just be http://eTegrity.com.
Best Regards,
Steve Ferman