One question that we continue to get from business owners is whether they should be in “the Cloud”.

For those that aren’t clear on what “The Cloud” is, here’s a quick explanation.

Cloud computing is basically a fancy way of describing hosted data and computing services provided and delivered through your internet connection. You basically just need the software running on your local computer and an Internet connection to access the services.

As Internet bandwidth becomes faster and less expensive, you will start seeing more and more “Cloud” services being offered.

The most reliable solutions right now for small business owners are:

1) Offsite Backup – Offsite backup into “The Cloud” allows you to load a small software agent on your server or computer that replicates your data to a secure Data Center over the Internet. This allows you do have a copy of your data in the event your computer crashes, or you have a worst disaster like a fire or flood. The prices have come down lately, and it is now affordable for everyone.

2) Email Hosting – Maintaining and managing your own internal email server for many small businesses just doesn’t make sense. For a flat monthly fee per user, you can have your Email hosted offsite with Microsoft Outlook, Web Access, and Mobile device access to your Email 24/7.

3) Server Hosting – Many organizations are now opting out of having servers onsite and instead going to hosted Servers. The best combination in our experience is having a Hybrid. Leveraging the cloud hosting options with local services for file, print, and some core applications. This gives you the benefit of the Cloud, but provides you with the peace of mind your data is local, and backed up offsite.

All in all cloud computing is a viable alternative for small businesses, especially start-ups that are limited in capital for purchasing servers for their business.

Best,

Matt

IT Support Seattle

cloud computing · cloud computing Seattle · cloud Seattle · IT Support Seattle

Is Social Media affecting your companies productivity?

You are not alone…

We are seeing this more and more. With the proliferation of social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and YouTube business owners and managers are starting realize they are losing money and productivity.

Many of our customers have approached us for a solution to this problem. Blocking these websites is a pretty straight forward process with the right hardware and software.

There are a few things you need to consider first:

1) Network Use Policy – Before you start blocking or filtering email or internet use, make sure you have a formal Network Use Policy in place. Typically you will have each employee sign the policy stating they understand that your computers are for business use only.

2) Good Communication – It is important that you communicate why you are blocking and filtering Internet use. I have seen many organizations that just turn it off with no warning, which creates HR issues. If you state it is a matter of security policy, and communicate in advance you can head this off before you are dealing with disgruntled employees. You are going to have unhappy folks, but you now have a policy to work with.

Another good solution besides blocking access completely, is to leverage software that allows use during specified times. You can then allow employees to use these sites during the lunch hour or before and after work hours.

If you are considering a filtering solution, let us know how we can help…

internet filtering · IT Support Seattle · social media