Why Cloud Computing Is Important To Your Online Business

Most SME businesses will address Cloud Computing/Virtualisation in a phased basis, starting with Email, CRM and Shared Documents, and then looking at things like the Finance Apps before going for full Desktop Virtualisation.

Businesses need to be prepared for the post-PC world

Cloud Computing: The Layperson’s Guide to Distributed Networks

The problem with this, is that because we  can make new technology sound complicated, and most of it is not complicated, businesses are put off evaluating new technologies that could really benefit their businesses. This is particularly important in tough times when the proper use of Computers and Technology can make your business more efficient, allow you adapt to the changing marketplace, reduce your costs and ultimately make your business more profitable.

Anyway to this end I have included a link to a video explaining in simple terms what Cloud Computing is.

Moving to the cloud

The first step in this process has been to migrate our email systems over to Google Apps Premier and to use Android (HTC Desire) as the mobile platform. Hence the lack of posts over the last week.

Watching and listening to the news reports on TV and radio we heard from people who were stranded at airports all over Northern Europe who cannot get to meetings or can’t get back to look after their businesses, and that it is costing there business huge amounts of money.

Then there is another group of business users who I see on the social media sites, blogs, etc. and for that group of business users it seems to be business as usual and they only mention being stranded in various parts of Europe as a by-the-by. In a lot of cases they have used Twitter, Facebook, etc. to contact people to make alternative arrangements to get home.

While there are times where traveling and meeting people face to face is essential, there are many more times where, if the technology is applied to your business in a practical and pragmatic way, your business can continue to function during these disruptions.

Cloud computing can allow your people assess your company information and systems, no matter where you are or what type of device you have available to you. Cloud Computing is not just for big business, SMEs have a lot more to gain and can potentially save their businesses more money.

What is Cloud Computing? Here is how Wikipedia defines Cloud Computing, but it’s much easier to explain with a practical example.

Courtown Sailing Club is a small club that is run on a completely voluntary basis.  The club has a very active cruiser racing program and also runs children’s sailing courses for eight weeks during July and August, so it’s computer and administration requirements are not untypical  of most small sports clubs. The biggest problems are that the volunteer committee changes from year to year, so it’s difficult to have consistency with essential club documents relating to policy and procedures, and it’s also difficult to transfer those documents to new committee members.

The second problem relates to the necessity for committee members to share information, particularly relating to the co-ordination and bookings for the summer sailing courses.

The first thing the club did was to set up a Google Documents account and upload the club’s essential documents relating to policies and procedures, the club’s constitution, membership forms, booking forms etc. This means that any new committee member who has access to the Internet and the appropriate access rights, can get access to these documents. It also means that finally the club’s documents have been retrieved form the various members PCs and are now stored centrally.

The second major benefit relates to the co-ordination that is required between the Secretary, Treasurer and Dinghy Course Organiser, to run the summer sailing courses. Because the spreadsheets and databases relating to applications, payments and the allocation of course places are instantly and centrally available to everyone at any time, it has dramatically reduced the confusion and more importantly the phone calls. These people no longer spend their evenings ringing around or more like the driving around trying to sort out Club issues.

The  reason Cloud Computing and Google Docs has been so successful for Courtown Sailing Club is that they, very wisely, kept it as simple as possible. So if you are a small business who needs to deal with flexible work practices and needs to effectively share information then maybe cloud computing is for you.

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