An IT Support Blog from London

Being cautious is not a bad thing. But if you’re overly cautious of a perceived risk that’s actually non-existent or not as bad as you think, it can prevent you from taking advantage of opportunities. Cloud computing offers huge opportunities through increased cost-savings, business agility, and availability. But because of fear-mongering, some businesses are unfortunately holding back on cloud migration and missing out on those opportunities.

In this post, we discuss some of the fears surrounding cloud computing that are really based on myths. By debunking these myths, we hope you can have a more positive outlook on cloud technology and be able to take advantage of the many benefits it can offer your business.

Companies who require high levels of availability need a reliable disaster recovery strategy. For many organisations, that usually means adhering to the 3-2-1 backup rule, where the 1 refers to keeping 1 backup copy offsite. Traditionally, that copy is stored in a dedicated, company-owned and/or managed disaster recovery infrastructure. Lately, however, businesses have started turning to cloud-based disaster recovery solutions. This article explains why that strategy is better.

What is the 3-2-1 backup rule?

The 3-2-1 backup rule is a highly recommended backup strategy that says you must:

• Possess at least 3 copies of your data;
• Store copies on two different kinds of storage media; and
• Keep one of those copies offsite.

What if your firm was asked to improve productivity by 5% this year? To achieve that level of productivity improvement, you need to know all of your options. Improving your technology capabilities by adopting cloud services is one of the best ways to improve your productivity as an accountant.

What Are Cloud Services?

Let’s take a moment to define our terms before continuing further.

While there may be a few businesses that don’t need to embark on cloud migration, they’re really more the exceptions than the rule. If you’re still pondering on whether it’s already time to move to the cloud, here are some tell-tale signs your company is ready for it.

Data centre optimisation and consequential benefits for businesses

Cloud computing is delivered from purpose built data centres which optimise the environment and the support systems for online software applications and the data which businesses store in the cloud. Companies that opt for cloud software solutions and services enjoy exceptional consequential benefits.

Quite simply, cloud computing is inherently more efficient than on-premise approaches to provisioning the technology services that support operations in your business.

The thing about data security…

Uncertainty about the security of the cloud has often been the deciding factor that has made some businesses retain an on-premise approach to provisioning technology to support operations.

High profile, security breaches involving large volumes of data, typically hackers stealing account and password and other personal information from online businesses, have created much doubt and distrust about the cloud, not to mention anxiety for those that have had their information stolen.

An increased compliance burden

The issue of increased regulation is a challenge to many businesses. The regulatory burden has been increasing; indeed, in stark contrast with the public sector slashing budgets, the powers and capability of quango executive agencies seem to have expanded.

Hosted Desktop is Now available to firms with heavy graphics demands.

Hosted desktop offers significant benefits to businesses of all types and sizes. Business applications are in the cloud, hosted on our servers in the data centre. Using laptops, PCs, tablets or thin clients, each user’s computing desktop is delivered through a business-class Internet connection.

The cloud marches on… the question is where next?

The cloud is perhaps the fastest growing technology trend of the last decade. When the world was dealing with the aftermath of the credit crunch and reeling with the blows from The Great Recession, businesses still needed the latest technology tools to ensure they could be competitive.

Shadow IT: Questionable practice in a business context

The vast majority of computer users routinely use cloud services of some description. Whether it’s a Gmail account or a file transfer service, almost all of us use free cloud-based tools. This might be OK for personal use, however, in a business context, such an approach is highly questionable. Why?