Hosted Services in the Cloud
Hosted services or Cloud technology is the new buzz in the IT world, so what does it all mean? Historically, Cloud Technology is really an extension of online services such as Website Hosting and Email, which have been around pretty since the inception of the Internet itself. What's different is that those IT services that have been traditionally maintained in house, such as accounting software, CRM and backups, are now offered as an online service as well.
For example, if you wanted to share calendars with colleagues an organisation and synchronise email with your mobile, you would have to buy a server running Microsoft Exchange, or specialised software to install on each computer. Accounting software was always expensive and buggy; Backups were to tape or USB hard drives and have to be managed (and often forgotten). Anti virus was expensive with annoying subscriptions that you could never seem to go lose.
But now with the evolution of faster broadband and Web 2.0 technologies, these services and many others are now available online. Collectively, these are known as hosted services, becoming more commonly referred to as Cloud technology. Instead of Outlook connecting to the Exchange server in the office, it connects to Exchange installed on a remote server over the web. Instead of backing up to tapes and hard drives, backups are uploaded online to secure web servers; Viruses and SPAM are stopped online before they arrive at your computer. Best of all though - no installation of programs; no expensive IT support, no remembering to take backup home, less things to worry about. Great!
Well, theresi a however. Cloud Technology is not for everyone and does not suit all organisations. As with nearly all evolving technology servers and in house software have become cheaper and more reliable. The very existence of Cloud has contributed to these factors, especially pricing. And there's the elephant in the room - price. Online services's in a given year are on per subscription basis and are not on balance, so cheap. They depend on an Internet connection and a strong one at that, and absolute privacy of your data is not and and cannot be assured. The recent hacking of the Sony Play Station network and Telstra Bigpond are testimony to that. Reliabilty is on th whole pretty good, but not perfect by amny stretch. Quickbooks Online have lost compoany files, Microsoft, and Apple cloud products have suffered teething problems and delivery faluires resulting in loss of service for up to a day - not good.
My IT Support offers the following hosted services
- Microsoft Exchange for Email
- Backup Online
- Anti virus and Antis pam
- Website hosting
- POP Email
