Talk of Clouds and other services

Cloud Based services – what are they good for?

What is a cloud?
Simply put, a cloud is a service delivered over the internet using an often vast grid of computers.
Pure clouds are often though of as only accessible through a browser.
Often though, you use locally installed software that simply stores it’s data (or a copy) on the cloud.

What are clouds good for?
If you need access to information or web based software from multiple locations, a cloud might be the right solution.
For small companies it is easier and far cheaper to use a cloud service for email than to have your own mail server and all work that entails.
Whilst there are concerns about security – there is no way a small company can secure something like a email server as well as the teams companies like Google Apps employ.
Also, things like accounting software, workflow/job management tools and CRM are all good candidates for the cloud.

What are clouds no so good at?
Accessing large chunks of data quickly is something a cloud can not do!
If you currently access files off a file server – accessing them from an cloud solution is simply too slow.
Solutions like DropBox and Egnyte get around this with a hybrid approach – they use the cloud the sync data to local machines.
That way, in the office, you access data at local network speeds, remotely you access the cloud at the speed of your internet connection.

D Revolution has been quietly testing and deploying various cloud based services for the last two years.
We can now supply, configure and support Google Postini – one of the best cloud hosted anti-spam/message archive product available.
This adds to Google Apps as well as Egnyte Private Cloud for ReadyNAS.
We are currently evaluating CrashPlan and are awaiting their local data centre in Sydney.
Contact us if there any any solutions you would interested in…