Cloud computing is just about everywhere you look today. There are ads on billboards, the television, and the radio. If you are a small to medium size business (SMB), what does all this cloud hype mean to you? Is it true that you should be saving thousands of dollars – should you get highly available enterprise class IT systems for a fraction of the cost? There is no magic wand or secret pixie dust when it comes to the cloud. You will always get what you pay for and the more redundancy and security you put into an IT solution the more it can cost.
The cloud is not a new technology; it is just more readily available as high bandwidth becomes a commodity. It is also not always the most redundant, forever reliable system that every vendor makes it out to be. There have been many recent issues with cloud services and we are continuously learning where the weak points can be. The cloud may not be an end all solution for SMB; however, it can be used to supplement all different aspects of IT to meet very specific business needs to include budget, redundancy, and functionality.
Northwest Computer Support has maintained a cloud presence and offered services in the ‘cloud’ since the mid 90’s. We believe that each cloud solution is not a one size fits all. Each solution is designed around a specific business need. Whether your need is to change capital expenditure to operating expense, add redundancy to existing systems, or even implement disaster recovery options to your business we can help. Northwest Computer Support is dedicated to learning how IT helps your business and then partnering with you on how we can help maximize your investment into IT. I can say that not all cloud solutions are cost saving but that all cloud solutions do offer some sort of advantage over on premise systems to meet specific business needs.
Chris Butler- Vice President, Consulting Services, Northwest Computer Support
Cloud talk is an educational open forum discussion on 'what is the Cloud?'