IT Network Upgrade Choices: Consider the Cloud, by Dan Saxby, Vice

In the IT world there are no cookie cutter solutions when it comes to deciding how best to access, store and secure your organization?s data.? With continual technology advancements in cloud computing, there are multiple avenues to ensure the uptime performance and the security of your organization?s proprietary data.? Just a few short years ago, your only option was to upgrade your existing on-site IT network every 4 to 7 years.

Today?s private cloud networks offer small businesses, non-profits and schools the ability for predictability of expenses and reduced technology headaches by simply purchasing the right capacity from a reliable datacenter.? This scalability benefit allows companies to either gear up or down based on economic conditions.

The internet has made computing into a utility with all the associated benefits.? As outlined in Nicholas Carr?s book, The Big Switch, before Thomas Edison and public electric companies, businesses, especially manufacturing companies, had to generate their own power.? This is not unlike the way companies have to produce their own computing power.? Now, powered by connectivity of the World Wide Web, companies can easily utilize outside hardware and software assets.? This new business model of hosting your data on other?s computer assets means built-in reliability and redundancy.?

At a recent Goering Center Educational Forum entitled, ?The Benefits of Cloud Computing?, panel members comprised of Cincinnati business executive universally stated that their sole regret as it related to their own cloud computing initiatives was that they didn?t act earlier.

Before completely jumping headfirst into the cloud, companies must consider the following questions:

• Are there requirements from the developer, customer or government agency to house certain software applications on a dedicated, on-premise server?
• Do we have a robust, reliable internet connection going to and from our location to where our data is stored?
• Are our data files too large to continually send over the internet to enable our employees to work on them?
• What is the negative impact on our business if we lose internet connection?

Executives and IT professionals must consider these and other factors when determining if they continue to physically house their IT network appliances or utilize an existing computing power owned by a third party provider. ??Of course, this decision isn?t an absolute one between on-premise solutions and the cloud.? Companies, non-profits and schools are choosing to take certain elements off-site, while keeping the majority of their computing processing abilities at their office.?

One such choice is sending the company email to Microsoft?s cloud through Office 365 Exchange.? For a monthly fee of $4 or $6 per user, companies can offload high volume data function from their current IT network infrastructure.? On the disaster recovery and backup side of the IT equation, and in order to mitigate risk, companies are replicating data on hardware assets they own at a distant datacenter from their primary facility, linked by a stout internet connection.

As organizations have more options, it is imperative that the appropriate IT network solutions are implemented.? Technology investments must support the business strategies and increase office productivity.? Start by creating a technology roadmap based on your current need and where your organization will be in the future, then determine how your organization should leverage the cloud today and down the road.

Source: http://blog.fullservice.net/?p=554

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