A typical computer network has a server that hosts e-mails and file sharing. The setup cost for the hardware could range from $4,000 and up while the setup fees and ongoing maintenance could be in the thousands also. A new alternative has been cloud computing. With this new method, there is no need for server equipment, server anti-virus and anti-spam software. Everything is administered in the cloud, or online.
With Google Apps, for instance, you can share e-mails, contacts, and calendar for $50/per user annually. With this pricing, you can anti-spam protection. You still need anti-virus protection on your computer. Best of all, the tech setup is pretty straight-forward. How does it work? Instead of Microsoft Exchange server, you use the Google website as your Exchange server which syncs between Outlook and Google. So, if you don’t want to use the Google website, you can continue to use your Outlook. The cool factor is that you can sync your Blackberry with it as if it were a Blackerry Enterprise Server. This means you can sync everything from your Blackberry on the fly. iPhones can be synced with the emails also.
As per file sharing, you can do that also as well as limit access to certain folks. The challenge or issue with the cloud computing is that you’ll need a fast Internet connection in order to quickly access and download files, e-mails, calendars, and contacts. If your Internet is slow or down, your business is down as well. So, you should still keep an external hard drive handy for quick back-ups.
Overall, cloud computing is here to stay and will foster as Internet speeds get faster and faster. Google, Amazon, and Yahoo are the leaders right now as the cloud computing providers. If interested, you can take a trial run first to see if you’re interested. Feel free to contact one of our cloud computing computer experts for more info.
