Monthly Archives: May 2017

Best Cloud-Based Apps for Business

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I spend a lot of time talking about applications of the cloud, so I figured I’d dedicate myself now to discussing some applications for the cloud. If you’re the owner of a small-to-medium sized business (often colloquially referred to as an SMB), then you’ll be happy to know that, even without cloud services, it’s still possible to leverage this technology to work for you and improve productivity. Thousands of applications exist on the web, and now, some recent additions are using the cloud to better manage their resources.

Have a look at some of the best services available now.

Intuit Quickbooks Online Plus

For under $40 per month, you can use cloud-based accounting to get a better handle on company finances. From its modest beginning, Intuit has since expanded its services and created a simple, user-friendly UI that caters specifically to SMB needs. It even includes a flexible payroll management service to make it your one-stop shop for dealing with finance.

IDrive

For the business with a minimal web presence looking for a hassle-free way to protect its data, IDrive is ideal. It’s inexpensive and boasts an easy setup that offers businesses disk image backups, folder syncing, and a hard drive for physical data security.

The downside? It only offers a terabyte of storage, which some smaller businesses may not mind, given IDrive’s ease of use.

Carbonite

For slightly larger businesses, Carbonite offers a more robust backup option for businesses looking to protect their data in case of disaster for a reasonable price. However, it does nothing to protect or back up virtual infrastructures or cloud-based data centers, making it so that businesses that are more digitally involved will have to look elsewhere for answers.

MailChimp

Even if your budget for email marketing is low, MailChimp delivers (pun intended) with a level of customization that’ll keep anybody happy regardless of their level of technological expertise. It’s also capable of integrating third party tools, and includes templates to get a new user off and running as fast as possible.

Hootsuite

If you’re interested in easily managing multiple social media platforms from one place, then consider Hootsuite. It starts off free, but an interested user can scale up and add more socials if they decide that the like the service.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer all-in-one analytics; though most social platforms have their own free services if you’d like to really track engagement.

Webroot SecureAnywhere Antivirus

For a little bit of money (around $20, to be precise), you can protect your devices from viruses and ensure recovery of files encrypted by ransomware. It doesn’t take up a lot of space on your device, scans rapidly, and offers a protective firewall. Plus, Webroot is constantly updating its database of programs and potential threats, and is willing to respond and adapt to any attack by an unknown software.

Ascencio System OnlyOffice

It’s a lot like Google Docs, but OnlyOffice offers a few more options that make it worth the higher price point. It provides additional features that can aid in productivity, including task, project, and customer relationship management tools. Plus, its myriad of functions are all cleanly integrated together in a way that makes it easy to shift from task to task.

Its main drawback is its lack of included storage, but this is offset by the fact that OnlyOffice plays nicely with other third-party storage providers for your convenience.

The Gap Between Cloud Demand and Delivery

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With IT infrastructure changing due to the rise of cloud services, many enterprises have tried their hardest to get on top of these trends. They’d certainly be well-advised to do so; cloud services are ultimately more cost-effective, scalable, and flexible than traditional server-based computing. However, this sudden influx of demand has left IT and cloud experts struggling to keep up.

Four out of five enterprises have experienced unplanned downtime in this transitionary period, with it becoming more of a problem within the last twelve months. Beyond this, other issues, including cyber attacks, natural disasters, and infrastructure problems have put the hurt on enterprises interested in transforming their IT services.

According to a recent poll from Veeam, a disaster recovery firm, around two-thirds of UK-based IT professionals reported that downtime has hurt critical efforts, limiting digital growth over time. Even beyond this, unplanned downtime can damage revenue or brand image and cause incidents when dealing with customers or clients.

The bottom line? IT services are hard-pressed to meet growing business demands, particularly when it comes to data backup and recovery. The interested observer may think of these as growing pains, but until they’re solved, further losses can be expected. For digital growth to continue unabated, better security and backup services are necessary for distributed computing. As a relatively new technology, there’s something of a dearth of experts, leaving many veterans of the industry scrambling to pick up the new skills necessary to work effectively with the cloud. It makes sense; leveraging the cloud effectively involves a new kind of thinking that has not been used by IT professionals.

For the errant wannabe cloud expert, there are a quite a few resources available to get yourself the knowledge necessary to help address the current need for cloud professionals. Of course, a simple Google search will fetch knowledge on any aspect of the subject, but online learning outlets have never been a better place to learn.

For instance, the National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes a great series of guides on the minutiae of cloud computing. For a more structured approach, codeacademy.com offers lessons on the subject as well. However, a lot of the information found online can be a bit overwhelming, so feel free to visit cloudpatterns.org for a better look at industry trends. Maintained by industry professionals, the site compiles patterns in skill and experience among individuals getting hired in cloud positions, and is a great way to stay informed on what’s relevant.

Cloud computing is going to continue to grow as an industry, to the point where cloud services are expected to comprise 46% of IT spending by 2019. In this time, private IT services will become increasingly popular as the presence of hybrid models eases businesses into this new model.

But for now, what the industry needs is highly motivated individuals willing to keep up with current trends and assure that this continued transitional period goes smoothly for all businesses involved.