Cloud Solutions for Small Business

You’ve read all about the benefits and advantages of cloud computing for small business. But now, how do you actually realize the results?

Well some business’ have gone cloud wholeheartedly, completely removing server hardware from the office and working 100% ‘in-the-cloud’, not every organization is in a position to follow suit. Maybe you’ve just recently invested a large amount of capital into new server hardware; perhaps you do not have sufficient internet bandwidth available yet. Regardless of your current situation, there are still a magnitude of solutions available that almost every business can utilize.

File Sync and Share

We all know and love the benefits of being able to share files between multiple computers, cell phones, and users, by using services like Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive. However, the inherit security concerns of syncing  and sharing your valuable business data and customers PII  in a public environment. For organizations concerned with the sovereignty and security of their data, private sync and share options are available and cost effective.

Application Hosting

Organizations have begun hosting specific applications in the cloud usually to mitigate and segregate the load and support costs on existing in-house systems, or to allow employees or contractors outside of the office to access data easily. Some very common applications that are often ‘clouded’ include accounting packages (QuickBooks/Simply Accounting), ERP platforms (Microsoft Dynamics, SAP), Scheduling Software, CRMs, etc…

Email Hosting

With the availability of hosted exchange and similar platforms, the need for your own in-house email server has dwindled. More and more organizations are moving to and benefiting from hosted email solutions such as Hosted Exchange or Hosted Zimbra.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Well traditionally over looked, data backup or disaster recovery solutions can now be custom tailored to meet your specific needs and budget. Simply make daily copies of your data to the cloud, or replicate whole servers for fail-over.

Things to look out for when selecting a cloud provider.

Here is a great list of questions you should ask any potential cloud vendor:

• Where geographically are your data centers?
• What security measures are in place to protect data – both physically and digitally?
• Who will have access to the data?
• What happens to the data once the contract with the cloud provider is terminated / void?

Server Cloud Canada (SCC) is a leader in the enterprise virtual datacentre environment, specializing in turnkey solutions that help companies of all sizes effectively and efficiently transition to a private cloud-based infrastructure.

We’re one of the biggest geographically redundant deployments of HP Matrix infrastructure in the country, and we’re 100% owned and operated within Canada.