Here are four great cloud computing applications I use to stay connected to my data and office regardless of where I am and what I am doing.

Evernote:

Cost: Free for basic version.
Keep all of your notes organized and synchronized between your smart phone and your PC. With Evernote you can create, categorize, and search notes. It even allows you to capture and attach pictures, audio or video files. Synchronization to your PC or laptop is a simple as 123. Install the application, sign in and your data will then sync automatically. I use Evernote to manage everything from shopping lists to client project details. It is simply a great tool.

Dropbox:

Cost: Free for basic version.
Do you remember the old File Transfer Protocol (FTP) way of copying a file across the internet to a remote computer? That used to be the de-facto standard of file sharing. It was very difficult to get right. Well, Dropbox is the new kid on the block when it comes to sharing a few files with friends, colleagues and most importantly yourself. Dropbox allows you to synchronize files of any type between all of your devices by just placing the file in the dropbox folder. Once the file is there it is then copied to every device under the account. There is also a neat feature that allows you to share files securely. Just place the files you want to share in the “public” folder in your Dropbox and email them a direct link. It’s easy and secure. Watch their introduction video and you will be convinced it is a must have tool.

Google Mail: 

Cost: Free for personal account.
Gmail is the standard and may seem an obvious choice for web based email but I think it needs a mention here and is definitely worthy of this list. Gmail synchronizes and manages your email, calendaring and contacts seamlessly between your desktop, laptop and mobile device. It is of course tightly interacted with the Google Android OS that has reached critical mass and is taking over the mobile operating system market. If you have yet to setup your own Gmail account I would highly recommend you at least take a look at their page and see what it offers.  Also checkout Google Apps for Business to see more of what Google has availible for managing and connecting your buisness, data and employees.

Splashtop:

Cost: $4.99 for standard version.
Remote access to your desktop from any device is what Splashtop is all about. Have you ever needed to run a report, drag a file into your dropbox or open a program that only runs on your PC back at the office? Log onto spashtop.com and watch the demo to see how you can stay connected to your desktop when you are away.

Give them a shot and see what virtualization, even on a small scale, can do for you. I think you will be glad you did.

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Cloud Computing – Since the internet first began picking up popularity (thanks to access systems like Compuserve, AOL and other earlier bulletin board services) we have periodically experienced massive shifts in how we use the internet.  Newly developed technologies like cloud computing have by far outgrown our ability to socially or lawfully manage them.

Currently we are embarking onto two new Internet paradigms…Social Networking and Cloud Computing.  These shifts are testing our ability to manage both our businesses and personal lives.  These paradigms will prove to be the most profound and enormous technological chalenges we have yet faced.  This newest technology gives us the ability to be everywhere, share everything and connect to everyone, instantly and forever.  If we survive the takeoff we will find ourselves in a land of business and social utopia!

For business, it’s email, calendaring, collaboration, virtualization of the office, applications and more.  Socially, it has expanded our world a hundred fold.  It bridges distance, bringing together our friends and family, which in any previous life would have been left worlds apart. It has allowed us to connect in ways never heard of only 15 short years ago.  We are entering our technological adolescence.  We have only scratched the surface as to what we can do in this new dimension we have created.

Without getting philosophical on the topic, I think you get my drift.  It’s new, it’s exciting and it holds treasures beyond our current imaginations.  But it is also spilling out of our hands and that translates to out of our control.  Which brings me to the point I want to make about cloud based computing.

Cloud based computing is completely out of our control.  I mean it, literally.  Cloud computing in a nutshell is this…We take our data and we store it on someone else’s computer.  Read the previous sentence again…We take our data and we store it on someone else’s computer.  Being the control freak that I am makes this a completely ludicrous business concept to me.  Handing the most important business commodity I have over to someone else, somewhere I don’t know.

I have been supporting small to mid-size companies for 15+ years as an I.T. consultant.  One thing I have learned is that the company data is pretty much the company itself.  I know they say the “people” make the company and I get that, but operating from my business experience, it’s the data.  CEOs come and go, but the data remains.  Lose the data and the company can tank.  It can happen almost overnight.  I’ve seen it.  It’s because we over-leverage the technology.  We feel we have to. It’s become one of the supreme laws of business.  Push the technology until it pushes back.

There are a lot of companies that are moving their critical business data out to the cloud. They are moving all of it and leaving it up to the professionals to manage it.  The companies are doing their due diligence and thoroughly investigating the service providers.  Making sure the SLA’s are solid and the data is safe in their hands and application up time is at a maximum.  The Service providers are running their business with their own diligence and with best intentions.  But inevitable is going to happen…It has already happened…To Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and others.  The rock solid names failed to maintain the systems and the clients paid dearly.  It will happen again and again.

Here is one quick example. In April, of last year, Amazon’s highly touted cloud service busted.  And it busted hard!  Not only did their cloud service go off line, they lost client data.  That was a catastrophic failure.  Some of Amazon’s cloud service customers reported being down for over 72 hours.  Many of them reported large chunks of their data that were never recovered. There are dozens of articles that report similar disasters with services like Microsoft’s Hotmail, Google’s Gmail, RIM’s Blackberry, Apple’s Mobile Me, Go Daddy Hosting Services and other cloud based services that we entrusted to hold and preserve our data and application systems.

Be smart, do your homework and be diligent not just in your investigation of the service providers, but in all aspects of housing, securing and managing your data.  It’s the life blood of your company.  I promise that you will thank yourself at some point.

Here are some pointers for looking into cloud based services.

• Use cloud computing for what your company can benefit and never over leverage this technology. If you can do it better on local systems then keep it local.
• Always have a backup plan.  Generate and document a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) to help protect you from the inevitable outage or data loss.  I provided you proof that it happens so plan for it.
• Maintain, review and update your DRP quarterly.
• Maintain redundant, tangible and verifiable backups of your important company data. Store it online and near-onlinewithin the walls of your business.
• Test and verify your backups monthly and review your backup procedure quarterly.
• Make sure at least two members of your organization fully understand the workings and nuances of the cloud service(s) and the backup procedures you are employing and how to administrate them. Don’t rely on customer service’s help.
• If you don’t have in-house personnel to provide these essential services, train someone or hire a qualified I.T. support company to manage it for you.  Its pennies on the dollar compared to what you will lose if you don’t.

When you are shopping for cloud based services:

• Look up track records and read reviews of the service provider.
• Read the Service Level Agreements (SLA) thoroughly and ask questions until you are fully satisfied with your understanding of it.
• In the instance of data storage services, make sure the service plan you select has local data synchronization capabilities so you can maintain data redundancy on your premises.
• Test before you commit. Don’t push your data or applications to a cloud based service without giving it a good hard test drive.  Try and break it to find the weak points.
• Consider your future needs when assessing a provider and their services. Make sure they can accommodate your needs as you grow or change.
• If you don’t have someone in-house that fully understands what you are looking for in cloud based service, hire a consultant to bridge the gap.  It’s a good idea to have someone on your side that can represent your interest.

Thank you for reading and please share any comments, suggestions or insight you have on this subject. They will be most appreciated.

The post Walking in the Clouds – A Case For and Against Cloud Computing for Business appeared first on Managed IT Services Las Vegas | Technology Mechanics.