Business Cloud Collaboration Services
We have been consulting with several of our existing clients and migrating them to a “Cloud Service” that helps cut the cost of managing a file or additional servers. The Cloud is that hazy place where data and applications are now being remotely served from, formerly just referred to as the Internet. Cloud services are becoming ubiquitous – just connect to the Internet and then retrieve information and/or process your data.
This is very popular with applications that run in a browser, storage, and now collaboration that ties in the former two. Managing business content on the cloud is a huge shift from the traditional local networked file server, remote control access, or virtual private network (VPN). Using a secure web page to access your files that normally interact with on your local network no longer requires you to be local or on your network.
One of the differences we point out to our small medium business (SMB) clients is that the newer cloud services are not just cloud storage, they are moving to what we call “cloud collaboration”. Cloud storage is common (Amazon’s web services or Rackspace’s Cloud Files), but collaboration is the shift that I want to accentuate.
Having a single location for all your local and remote users to manage their work, wherever they may be, is essential, but being able to have internal discussions and a dialogue with clients on documents and projects is innovative.
We are excited to use the new web applications with the flexibility they offer to everyone in the office and on the road. Although we have experienced migrating and using the cloud collaboration, we have declined to partner with a single provider at this time, as the services are too new and we don’t want to be impartial on offering our clients the best web software.
As we approach a world of technology with hosted applications, storage, and now collaboration, perhaps our government can be run there too?
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