Paragon News and Views
The Cloud and You
November 21st, 2009 by Ken AgnetaYou can’t read technology news these days without seeing “Cloud Computing” at least once. Everyone is talking about it, cloud computing companies are popping up out of the woodwork and well known products are re-branding themselves as “Cloud Services”. Its not really surprising once you consider that in a May 2008 report Merrill Lynch estimated that 12% of the global software market would move into the Cloud Services sector, and Gartner has simultaneously predicted a 3.8% drop in tech revenue for 2009 while the Cloud Services market will triple from 46.4 billion last year to 150.1 billion in the next three years (source: BusinessWeek 6/09). So what is Cloud Computing and what does it mean to you, the small business?
So What the Frak is the Cloud?
For many years geeks like me have represented networks; any network, your small business network, the Internet, private networks between office locations, anything with a cloud. In the diagram below you can see that your company’s firewall sits between two networks, The Internet and Your Company Network, represented as clouds.
The term Cloud Computing is overused today and its been said that all forms of computing will eventually be encompassed by the term. All Cloud Computing really means is putting some portion of your computing experience out on the Internet, instead of inside your company network. You have likely used some form of Cloud Computing already and not even been aware. SAAS, or Software As A Service, is one form of cloud computing where the Software is hosted in the cloud and accessed via your web browser. Gmail and Google Apps, Salesforce.com and WebEx are all examples that you are likely familiar with. These software applications are not installed on your PC, but accessed via your web browser. All the hard stuff happens outside your computer and you do not have to worry about it a bit. Another way to leverage the cloud is to host your processing power and data storage space there. Amazon’s web services, Amazon EC2 and S3, are the best known of these type of services. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) allows you to leverage as much processing power as you need at any time (Thus it’s “elastic” nature) via virtual servers and pay for it by the hour. Another feature of EC2 is the ability to leverage Amazon’s global network to have one virtual server based here in the US and another in Europe providing for greater redundancy and global performance. “That’s great, but what about data storage?” you say (Stay with me folks, it will all come together in a moment) That is where Amazon S3, or Simple Storage Service, comes into play. This service allows you to leverage Amazon’s endless array of global storage resources for a nominal storage fee, and some Tolls for incoming and outgoing traffic. I know it sounds expensive, but believe me it is way less expensive then trying to build this infrastructure yourself and that is really what this cloud stuff is all about, renting services from someone else who is an expert at delivering, instead of reinventing the wheel yourself.
So What? What Does This Mean For My Business?
Only the ability to leverage all the same tools the big boys have, without the big boy budget. Over the years Enterprise software has become very complex and extremely successful at cutting costs and leveraging information within an organization. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Sales Force Automation (SFA), Enterprise Content Management (ECM) all these three letter acronyms stood for the same thing as far as small business was concerned, TM$ (Too Much Money). But these days you do not need to buy a $10k server and $20k software that is likely overkill for your business, you can whip them up virtually in the cloud and pay for only what you use. A CRM project can cost tens of thousands of dollars and still leave a bad taste in the consumers mouth; trust me I’ve been there. With Cloud based solutions you can skip around, find one that fits or is close enough and get going for $50.00 to $150.00 a user per month. All you need is a desktop, a credit card, access to the internet and your up and running like the big boys in minutes.
Another great example is the new social networking trend. Everyone is trying to leverage our new connected society to benefit their business, simply for marketing or as the basis for their revenue generation itself. There is a book on my reading list, “Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone is Connected. Connecting Your Business to Everyone” that gave me an interesting fact, if Facebook were a country it would have the 6th largest population in the world. If you wanted to build a social networking site today with the expectation of going national or even global cloud computing means the ability to go to market immediately without spending tens of thousands on bandwidth and computing power and scale it as much or as little as you need. If your site goes viral and all of the sudden has a billion and a half hits a day, guess what? You’re covered. If the idea doesn’t take on quickly then at least you are only paying a nominal fee to keep it running until you hit break even or the idea does catch on. Pretty cool huh?
But Why are You Telling Us, Doesn’t This Put You Out of Business?
Heck no! Look, someone needs to help small businesses leverage this technology. All of you are very smart business people or you would not have made it through this last year, but technology for most of you is just not in your blood. We bleed silicone. Our job is to help you best leverage the cloud to improve your business’s bottom line or propel you into the next phase of your business’s life. Do you really need to pay $65.00/month/user for Salesforce.com or will Zoho work for $12? What’s the best way for your virtual team to share its information? Can you go with Google Apps or do you need MS Office? These are all subjects we can work with you on and they have huge relevance to your business today. If you want to know how your business can leverage the cloud for efficiency and profit, please contact us today!