Computers in the workplace – Looking ahead to 2012.
Cloud computing is where many companies will be looking to in 2012. Cloud technology has come on in leaps and bounds and more and more companies are starting to take advantage of hosted and virtual solutions in many areas of business.
Microsoft makes a big statement last year with the release of office 365. It was a very clever way of bringing cloud based services into the mainstream by offering existing applications from a cloud network at what is a very reasonable cost. Office 365 has probably made life hard for retailers selling Microsoft’s retails to be honest! I also noticed that Microsoft is pushing office 365 on their website for educational customers as well, very very clever indeed.
As it stands, 2012 should be a big hit in 2012. The only thing that concerns me is that I have spoken to quite a few people that have experienced connectivity problems, not just at their end but at the end of the supplier. Up time needs to be 99.9%, and I have talked with people who have experienced downtime of HOURS. The problem with this is that when you migrate your entire network over to the cloud, you become completely reliant upon it for everything used in day to day business. If the cloud network down for minutes then it becomes disruptive, if it goes down for hours then you are looking at a business critical situation that could cost you thousands.
The moral of this history is ‘choses your vendor wisely’. I am not referring to Office 365, but suppliers of Hosted Desktop and Exchange Solutions. Chooses a reputable supplier that can guarantee 99.9% uptime with credits issued when this doesn’t occur. I would also suggest choosing a cloud based specialist that is established, the last thing you need as a business is to move your entire network over to the cloud, only to find out that your hosted vendor has gone into liquidation, never to be seen again. If this happens then you could soon follow them!!!
That’s not to say that not all vendors cannot be trusted. There are some good vendors out there and this IT Support London based company is a good example of one I personally know that are reliable and use the latest cloud based technology. There are many vendors nationwide but remember, because this is hosted you don’t necessarily need them on your doorstep. There is lots of review available online for many of these companies so do your research.
The cloud is getting utilized in so many areas of our life. Apple has introduced icloud and Sony has introduced a cloud based save game solution for its PlayStation and vita games consoles, do doubt that Microsoft will follow suit very soon with the Xbox.
Would I completely trust cloud computing enough to completely move my business over to it at the moment? If I am being honest, no I wouldn’t, but that’s not to say that won’t change in the future, but 2013 will probably be the year for me, once all the small issue have been ironed out.
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