Four Corners IT Solutions

Now that you know that the cloud is essentially an internet-based network of computers sharing resources, the thought of making use of some of those resources shouldn’t be quite so daunting. On the contrary, you should feel excited about your new found door to efficiency and peace of mind. Many of these services take advantage of the large user base and are therefore less expensive. Sometimes even free.

It should be said, however; at this time, it’s not for everyone. For the large majority of small business, basing many of your business resources in the cloud makes sense, but some solutions aren’t there yet. Specialized applications like running CAD software or using Dropbox to sync all your Netflix movies to 7 different computers won’t really work that well. But for the majority of the cloud solutions, every business can and does (usually to some extent) take advantage of that. Don’t let years of corporate brainwashing bureaucracy hold you back. Be efficient, take advantage of this down economy to shed cumbersome IT costs and make yourself as bullet-proof as you can.

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If you need more information or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

The concept of cloud computing isn’t really a new one. They had something like that decades ago, known as “dummy terminals”. Typically low powered machines that accessed the resources on a high-end, very expensive server. As computing needs grew and performance was needed, the de-centralization movement began. Sort of. Now, with the added resources of using de-centralized systems and true resource sharing, your data is available from anywhere, it’s not dependent on any one computer. Or any one section of this country.

Due to this concept, nothing is dependent on the type or speed of computer you have. Naturally you wouldn’t want to try it running Windows 3.1, but you COULD. So, while replacing a computer once every 3-5 years is a good idea, it’s no longer a necessity. You also don’t have to spend $1,500 on a new desktop for your admin person. You’re fine in the $3-500 range. Therefore your equipment costs go way down.

Stop back on Wednesday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

One of the biggest sources of hesitation I run across when talking to business owners about these concepts is the data security and client or business data privacy. I like to think of it this way: How secure is your network now? Better still, how long is it going to take me to get through your front door, grab your server and walk away? I’d bet, I can have everything you’ve got on your super-secure network you paid some guy thousands of dollars to setup in under 5 minutes. That’s how secure you are.

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume all you do is create documents and spreadsheets. You use Dropbox to synchronize and backup all your data. Now, you’re the kind of person who doesn’t like to have a password on your laptop and you certainly don’t have an encrypted file system. So someone steals your laptop out of your car and now your exposed, right? They have everything. Right up until they try to turn it on. Since you were using Dropbox, you went online with your phone or called the secretary and told her what happened, she logs into your Dropbox account and un-links your computer. They got no data at all for their brand new felony. You were secure.

Data privacy is a more difficult subject. Inside your network there really isn’t much of that, if you’re connected to the internet. Much of what’s on your computers can be accessed by spyware or by various government agencies’ data mining. Which they do. Every web hosting company, yourself included if you host your own email internally, is required by law to retain records of every email sent for a period of time. The government can demand these copies of emails at any time with a warrant (or by throwing the Patriot Act in your face). That’s one of the things that got Bill Clinton busted and nearly impeached Dick Cheney. Every search engine from Google to Amazon to Yahoo looks at your browsing habits, purchasing habits, what you type in everywhere in order to give you personalized browsing. Effectively, increasing their ad revenue.

Dealing with things online then, seems like a bit of a risky situation. It’s really less so. The companies that host these technologies are required by law to have them secure. They hold certifications that allow them to host medical records, legal documents, military secrets, that kind of thing. In order to maintain that level of security, you’d have to have some very skilled staff on hand managing your infrastructure 24/7. Why reinvent the wheel?

Stop back on Monday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

The advent of smart phones and tablets has been a rise, nearly on pace with that of the “Cloud”. This cloud concept has made data highly available and convenient for the end user to have on the go. If I were to think about just a few years ago, if I wanted to do anything, I’d have to be where that particular computer was. For the most part, now I can reach for my iPhone and make due. Or my iPad and I’m really good. I post some of these blog entries using my iPad, I can do my accounting on either my phone or tablet. That’s really how good it’s gotten.

The thought that Blackberry and SMS messaging are the height of collaboration and sharing ideas is complete and total crap. Blackberry was cutting edge back in its day and some people still swear by the things. But try to hold a web conference on one, try editing a document with those stupid little keys. Never mind the document storage, or actual useful collaboration features, you’d have to be a monkey. A monkey with Aspergers to do anything useful in today’s world with that. And I won’t even get into the Blackberry Enterprise Server to host all that luxury and convenience.

Stop back on Wednesday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

It used to be, back when you still thought servers were the way to go (you don’t anymore right?), backups were typically done by tape drive, external hard drive or backup server (with a tape drive or external hard drive). And the fantastic price you’d have to pay for all this would be in the $10k+ range. Just to maintain the status quo.

Now that we have the cloud though, things are a bit different. You can take your local server (or preferrably, workstations) and have that data backed up to off-site and local backups for far less than the cost of the old tapes themselves. If you’re taking my thoughts from the previous sections seriously, then the actual need for any backup solution is unbelivably small. To the point of now, you’re talking about how many backup redundancies you want, not “Does the one I have actually work?”.

The real benefit here being, when that crash happens, as it likely will someday; you’re making that long trip over to where your laptop is. Maybe running to OfficeMax for another computer. And you’re going again. OR you could be out $10,000 and wishing to heck those tapes actually worked. That’s really how simple your choice is now. If you’re IT guy tells you differently, he’s not helping you at all, he thinks of you as an ATM.

Stop back on Monday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

For the anachronism, we’re back to having everything centralized on a server and nightly backups to tape or (if you were very cool) to an external drive or backup server. The usual, throw all your eggs in one basket then pay a typically unreliable fox a lot of money to look after it. We’ll look at all the downsides to tapes and external hard drives in the next section.

So, you want to have cloud-based document storage and security. We’ve beaten Google Apps to death, but lets kick that horse one more time: Google Docs provides 7 GB of storage for their base-free edition. While not much, I have clients that don’t need more. If you do need more, you can buy it at $5/year for an additional 20 GB. Which works out to be not much. Buying a 1,000 GB hard drive is around $120 and that’s just the hard drive. It’s not being backed up, it’s not available anywhere. For the same space in Google Docs, it’d cost you $256/year. Quite a good deal. And you can store ANYTHING up there.

Dropbox is a wildly popular application. It is cloud-based, so data’s available where ever you are from anything. It even installs its application on your PC, Mac, Droid, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows phone and more. If you’re enterprising enough, it’s possible to put it on the software that runs your smart fridge. So your data’s anywhere, it’s also on your computer with you when you’re offline. The pricing structure ranges from free to quite a lot, most small businesses would never need more than the $20/month level.

Other applications, like SkyDrive, SugarSync and the like offer similar, web-based functionality, but not the added advantage of being synchronized to your local computer. Amazon’s S3 storage has that same web-based functionality and the ability to be sync’d to your local computer, but it’s not in real-time and it does require third party software.

Stop back on Wednesday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

I’m not really going to focus on accounting software here, we did that in a previous post. Now it’s where your software is and how it’s accessed. I’m going to use Quickbooks, just as a placeholder here. Insert your own, as applicable. Ordinarily, you’d have a server running Quickbooks and its Database Server software in the office. This means you:

1. Have to have a server
2. Have to have someone to maintain that server
3. Have to install Quickbooks on every single computer in the office
4. Can’t access your financial information outside the office (or not securely anyway)

And, did I mention, nothing about that scenario is particularly convenient or cost-effective?

So really, you have two alternatives. You can use something along the lines of Quickbooks Online or the Pro Plus software (neither of which gets you anything that you’d call full-featured); OR you can go with a hosted service, essentially putting Quickbooks in the cloud. There is a company that I highly recommend that uses whatever version of Quickbooks you have, makes it as convenient as a web page, takes care of maintaining the software, servers, and security. No more server, no more backups, no more “Honey, I have to go to the office and run my TPS reports for Bob because I forgot to on Friday.” Just login using your home computer, iPad (or phone, if you’re really desperate). And, because it’s in the cloud, you can now use any accounting software, like Quickbooks Premier or Enterprise (or Peachtree, whatever) on a Mac.

In the very near future (so near, I’m already doing it) accounting software will evolve to be fully web-based and therefore platform independent. Which will truly meet the definition of cloud-based business solutions.

Stop back on Monday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

For word processing, spreadsheets, presentations and the like, most people in this country use Microsoft Office. Which typically means storing the documents on your computer, paying $300+ per computer in licensing fees every few years and dealing with periodic, problematic updates and speed issues with your computer, which DOES have a shelf life. Which we’ll cover in another post.

Now though, those inventive folks at Google appear to have done it again, with Google Docs. For the basic version of Google Apps, which as we said earlier, is free, you can store up to 7 GB worth of documents, spreadsheets, presentations and anything else that strikes your fancy, online AND be able to edit it right there.

Microsoft has also rolled out it’s version of cloud-based document storage and editing, called SkyDrive (as shamelessly plugged on TV) and Office Web Apps. Now, while Google Apps does offer the same basic spreadsheet and presentation functionality, Office Web Apps is way more advanced in both of those categories. Whether you need that advanced functionality or not, is something to determine for yourself. Personally, I find I don’t really need gee-wiz charts embedded into my spreadsheets and I really don’t do a whole lot with presentations in the first place, so it really does depend on your level of need.

Stop back on Wednesday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net

Traditionally, you’d use Exchange, Groupwise or something in that vein and tie it into Outlook or Lotus Notes. This meant having a server, purchasing licenses for the server and every single workstation that it was installed on. We’re talking $10k+ of expenditures for what most people use to check their email and have a shared office calendar. And now, some web meeting and other collaborative activities. Sounds like a bit much… Especially when you need to pay some IT guy hundreds a month to maintain the thing.

Now, there are alternatives to dumping your cash down the drain. I’ll use Google Apps as the prime example. You can look at the various enterprises and small businesses that have embraced the convenience, simplicity and cost savings of this system and how much more effective it’s made them in their industries. It’s initially setup; there are normally birthing pains of sorts, but it’s relatively pain free, as far a change goes.

With Google Apps, you get not only your email in the familiar Gmail type interface, but shared calendaring which is every bit as simple to use as Outlook; document storage, editing online and some CRM and resource planning plugins that tie directly into it. It also ties in seamlessly to your iPhone or Droid. And your Mac. The only caveat is, for you Windows people out there, you have to get the Google Apps for Business edition if you want it to fully sync everything with Outlook. But that’s not particularly expensive either. Oh, did I mention the base price for all this functionality is….. nothing?

Stop back on Monday for the next part!

If you can’t wait to find out more or for a free technology consultation, contact me!

Aaron Schlagel
Phone: 505-692-4953
Email: info@s2consulting.net
Web: www.s2consulting.net