Cloud Solutions
How can the Cloud support your Business?
- Public Cloud – Shared systems or hosting
- Private/Personal Cloud – Your own secure area
- Hybrid Cloud – A mix of shared and private solutions
- Hosting – Off site storage or co-location of software/hardware
- Disaster Recovery – Geographical separation from your premises
- Hardware or Software – Either can be hosted or cloud based
Here at SNC we see the Cloud as more than an emerging technology and believe it levels the playing field for most businesses. However, we understand that it is still early days and so we take a very consultative approach when helping our clients understand how Cloud can be used to best effect in their business.
The ‘Cloud’ is a metaphor given to hardware, software and applications that run across the internet and which predominantly do not require any local installation, other than a web browser and internet connection.
In most cases Cloud based solutions are common business applications or shared resources which require access from multiple locations, at infrequent times, 24 x 7. A typical example of a Cloud solution may be accounting or CRM software.
The Cloud promotes an on demand, subscription service which delivers the required functionality as and when it is needed. It also changes the format of IT spend from Cap-Ex (capital) to Op-Ex (operational) budget. By adopting this approach, users can quickly scale up or down as the need arises; making it extremely responsive to change.
There are several approaches when using Cloud computing. These range from taking a portion of a mass market offering in the Cloud, through to your own ‘instance’ of an application hosted on a server in an external data centre. There are benefits for each approach – a ‘pure’ Cloud option provides flexibility and no integration issues, and a hybrid approach offers the opportunity to scale up quickly and is highly secure.
If you would like to know more about where the Cloud could fit into your IT strategy, please contact us today.
