InfoStreet's Small Business Blog
Making sense out of the cloud
Jumping into “the Cloud” with both feet might be daunting. You hear the commercials and read endless articles outlining the benefits that the Cloud provides small businesses, but you are understandably hesitant to jump in all at once.
So here’s a Cloud calendar that will allow you to join your competitors in the Cloud, one step (app) at a time. And don’t worry; this Cloud has a solid foundation.
USA Today’s Ask an Expert column posted a question from an employer about whether she should allow an employee to work from home. The columnist outlined a list of the ‘whys’ (why telecommuting benefits both the employer and employee) and the ‘hows’ (how to make it work). Interesting information but seems to be a little late to be asking the question. Aren’t we all tele-workers anyway?
First let’s understand how we work. Really work.
The perception might be that we go to our office, log into our desktop, and work an 8 hour day. But the reality is very different. We work from our desktop when in the office, take our laptop or tablet to internal or external meetings and shift to our Smartphones when at home or on the road. Have you been on a train/bus or plane recently that hasn’t had multiple passengers working on some web-enabled device? Or a Starbucks?
We don’t tell a client that we have to wait until we get into the office to get them the information they need; we pull up whatever device we have with us and respond on the spot?
Because we know that if we don’t, our competitor will be.
This is how we work in the real world. And for all the discussion about whether companies will embrace the cloud, their workers already have.
Ask the Expert outlined the why’s and the hows, so let’s discuss the what: What functions are best served in the cloud? Siamak Farah, CEO of InfoStreet told cyber FEDS® “All you have to do is tap into the Internet and access software that is up-to-date,” he said “So agencies (and companies) are not spending time and money maintaining legacy software that stays dormant and is never updated.”
What can go in the cloud?
Some of the functions ripe for the cloud, Farah said, are:
Farah also said the demand for HR services in the cloud “will be growing quite a bit” as agencies transition away from the traditional model of having all their employees under one roof.
Is it safe? Cloud providers such as InfoStreet provide a 99.99% guaranteed uptime and has since the company was founded in 1994. On the other hand……
“Traditional PC-based collaboration also introduces security risks noting that recently obtained statistics from the chief security officer within Google were really astounding.” According to one survey, 66 percent of thumb drive owners reported losing a thumb drive containing private or confidential data; 1 in 10 new laptops purchased this year will be stolen within the first 12 months; and 60 percent of an organization’s intellectual property resides on hard drives, most of which are unencrypted and unprotected.”
Should that employer allow her employees to telework? I would venture that they already do. Visit the cloud apps that InfoStreet provides to see all the tools that will make your telecommute more effective.
