Posts Tagged reduce software costs

what is cloud computing?

For a few years now theitguys.co.uk have been supplying remote software services where you pay a low monthly fee, we provide you with a service and you take advantage of our data centre facilities with technical support and backup. Services such as email, calendar and contacts collaboration, email scanning and cleaning, remote backup are a few that can be defined as cloud computing.

Additionally theitguys.co.uk manufacture/ develop software that runs as a service in the cloud - commonly known as “software as a service” (SaaS). In days gone by companies would have an Access database developed that handled processes within their business, these days software is often required externally as people work remotely, on the road or from home. The safest and easiest way to deliver that is by cloud computing or over the Internet using Rich Internet Applications (RIA) - click here to see our software page for more information on RIA, Flex and AIR technologies.

should you embrace cloud computing?

Things are definitely moving in the direction of cloud computing and the biggest reason is cost and power. Why bother running your own servers and services that need to be constantly updated with new features at great expense when for a fixed low fee you can benefit from the latest in technology from your cloud supplier?

Lets look at the pros and cons:

Pros:

• reduced hardware, software, network, support, accommodation and environmental costs
• greater flexibility, mobility, utility, operational stability, process control and activity monitoring
• faster updates, procedural changes, training and debugging
• better security, scalability, use of resources, control of data access and recovery from catastrophic failures

Cons:

• dependence on centralised server and services that are in-sourced or outsourced, plus the need for fixed and mobile bandwidth everywhere
• instantaneous propagation of service-affecting errors, software problems, mistakes and other snafus
• catastrophic and instantaneous failure mode at a terminal level and no one can work until the problem is fixed. This is leading many people to opt for a ‘thinish’ client model with a limited offline capability such as Google Desktop.

With cloud computing the idea is to try and afford new degrees of freedom and flexibility in order to up productivity while maintaining the integrity operations and security of access and data.

Overall this is about efficiency and cost saving but these should not be at the risk of operational fidelity.

If you need more information please do not hesitate to contact us. Please comment below if you have an opinion.