Top Ten Benefits of the Cloud: #3 - Disaster Recovery

Many small businesses that incur a significant data loss have often found themselves bankrupt within six months.  In Houston, we know firsthand that disasters such as hurricanes or floods can do irreparable damage to your company.  If you don't have a disaster recovery plan in place, you need one. If you haven't reviewed your plan in the past year, don't wait - But don't go it alone either.  IS Support can help.



Our cloud-based, IS RapidRestore is one of our premier services that is installed on your network to back up your server every 15 minutes on your company's site, then move it safely to an offsite location each evening.

Even in a catastrophic event your data can be restored with RapidRestore in less than an hour. In the event of a full server crash, RapidRestore creates a virtual replica to act as a standby server allowing business operations no interruption during timely server rebuilds. 

Features:

• 15-minute snapshots of server
• Offsite replication in the event of a total property loss
• Restores a full server or at the file level
• Back to business in less than one hour
• No expensive backup software or tape drives eliminating the risk of forgetting to change tapes or not take them offsite

If you're interested in more details on how IS Support can help give your business the peace of mind with a solid, redundant backup recovery plan, contact us today at 866-370-7142 or visit our website!

Top Ten Benefits of the Cloud: #2 - Scalability

(This is part two of a ten part series on cloud computing benefits)

When your business is on the cloud, you can "scale" your business' storage needs seamlessly, rather than purchasing individual expensive programs or hardware. 

Businesses can leverage certain projects and pay for all the cloud apps they need to create, implement and market certain projects on a month to month basis rather than purchasing pieces of hardware, worry about overloading their servers or buying various software licenses. 

For more information on how our IS Cumulus cloud options can help your business, visit our website or call us at 866-370-7142

Top Ten Benefits of the Cloud: #1 - Reduced Costs

When analyzing cloud computing for your business IT solutions, one of the most important reasons the cloud can help is to reduce IT expenses.

Cloud computing reduces your hardware (computers, software, downloaded programs), networking management and overall IT expenses.  To go more in depth, here is a brief, yet detailed summary of other ways directly reduces costs:

1. Pay only for what you use – IS Support's Cloud Cumulus solution operates on a pay-as-you-use model, or in different terms, a demand-only model. With IS Cumulus, you only pay for the services you require and use. This works out to be much cheaper than acquiring barely used equipment.



2. Running costs – In addition to usage, running costs comprise a significant portion of the annual IT budget. By shifting to cloud computing, your company is free of those expenses such as upgrades, physical maintenance, personnel salaries, etc.

3. Economies of scale – Cloud computing can utilize economies of scale to offer cheaper rates to your business. In other words, the service providers can buy IT equipment in bulk to lower unit acquisition costs, and part of the cost savings are passed on to their consumers. Consequently, this price is much lower than what you would pay to buy similar equipment from the retail market

4. Investment costs vs Operational costs - Acquiring expensive equipment is considered a capital expenditure, which can be costly. As the equipment ages, this acquisition depreciates over time. With cloud computing, a one-time expense is spread across several operational cycles, becoming part of operational costs providing a much better alternative. Factor in the time value of money, and the balance shifts even more towards cloud computing.

If you would like to learn more, or find out exactly how our IS Cumulus solution can provide your company all of the above benefits and more, contact us for a free consulting session!

Stay tuned for the next part of Cloud Computing benefits: Scalability

Top Ten Benefits of the Cloud!

Some IT Professionals will often talk about how cloud computing can help your business without getting very specific on exactly "how."  Well, we would like to change that.  In this upcoming blog series, we at IS Support have listed our ten favorite ways that Small-Medium sized businesses utilize the cloud.  We have listed them below (in no particular order)

1. Reduced Costs
2. Scalability
3. Disaster Recovery
4. Remote Access
5. Fast Response Time
6. Automatic Updates
7. Implementation
8. Level Playing Field
9. Mobility
10. Experienced Vendor

For the next ten blog posts, we will take each one above and briefly summarize it and how it can effect your business and help you evolve with technology to take your company to the next level. 

Stay tuned and in the meantime, check out our website...we'd be happy to put you on "the cloud!"

Do you trust your bank? Then trust the Cloud!

Many businesses have concerns about Cloud security, especially with recent headlines such as Amazon’s cloud outage.   Issues such as privacy and data breach issues are significant worries when a company considers switching to the Cloud and it’s easy to understand why – Cloud computing means moving some or most of your data to a third party location outside of your servers or hard drives. 

But the fact is that Cloud Computing is not a new trend in IT world.  In fact, you probably are using elements of cloud computing in your everyday life.  If you use e-mails services such as G-Mail or Yahoo Mail, you are already in the cloud. All your e-mails (data) are saved in servers outside your home or business and you need a web browser and internet connection to access your data, and this is what cloud computing is all about: storing your data and application in a remote server which you can access via web.

Your online banking is also a form of cloud computing, you need to log on a remote server, via your bank website to access your account information which contains your banking data.  Almost everyone uses some form of online banking, without even realizing that such concepts are forms of cloud computing.  Online banking or mobile apps are a safe and secure way of making banking easy and accessible; so is cloud computing for your company.

So cloud computing is not entirely new technology, we just have more applications now taking advantage of this technology.  If you feel secure to trust your online banking, then consider IS Support’s Cloud Cumulus solutions for your business. To learn more about how we can put your company on the cloud and all that our cloud solutions can provide your business, visit our website. We look forward to hearing from you!

If only it was this easy

Getting on the cloud is not this easy:

Our friends and partners at VMWare shared this hilarious video of an IT engineer trying to put his data center in the cloud.  If you're still wondering what all the chatter is about Cloud Computing, we can help your business find cloud solutions with our designed-for-you, Cloud Cumulus services.  We can make it look....almost this easy.

If  you would like a FREE consultation to see if cloud computing is right for your company: click here

You're Invited: Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery: a Lunch and Learn

In Houston, summertime brings about two unpleasantries: heat and hurricanes.

While heat is no fun, we've learned to tolerate it - but hurricanes can be much worse and for businesses they can cause damage, lost productivity and at worst, lost memory and sales.  That's why we at IS Support and our partners at iland Cloud Infrastructure would like to invite you to our free Lunch and Learn on June 15th.

Whether it's a hurricane or a simple power outage, don't let a disaster of any kind set your company back!  Learn how you can use Cloud Computing to make your company disaster-proof to give your business peace of mind so you can spend this summer worrying about the heat instead of hurricanes.

Don't wait! Register now below:

HP Memorial Day Sale!

For most of us here in Houston, the Memorial Day weekend will be spent with our families, perhaps some barbeques, or some needed rest.  Our friends at HP, though, will be just as busy as ever, especially with their Memorial Day Weekend Sale with some amazing deals.

We thought we would share them with you here: http://bit.ly/jIhRiK

Lastly, we hope you remember to think of our men and women in uniform, who have paid the ultimate sacrifice.  Happy Memorial Day!

Join us for a free event on May 25th

 

 

IS Support presents: "Hyper-V and how it will impact your business"

 

You’ve probably been hearing about cloud computing. But when you get beyond the hype, most cloud solutions offer little more than an alternate place to store your data.

 

 

 

 

Join us for a cloud power event and we’ll show you how our expertise and Microsoft cloud solutions can help you to:

• Reduce your capital expenses
• Save money by paying only for the computing power you  need
• Get to market faster by leveraging your existing IT skill investments.

Register today and see how cloud power can help your business move forward.

Flying on "The Cloud"

 

Everyone remembers their first flight.  Whether you were 5 years old or 30, there was always a tinge of nervousness and dread.  Your mind may have flashed back to images of the news, or Die Hard 2 – a plane hurtling, uncontrollably to the ground.  However, after all of that anxiety, you ended up safely at your destination, on time, and received a free juice out of the ordeal.  Despite all the nervousness and in-flight turbulence, flying turned out to be a safe and fast way to reach your destination.

If you have doubts and skepticism about switching to cloud technology, you are not alone.  Certainly there have been bouts of bad publicity and concerns about security such as the most recent fiasco with Amazon.  But like flying on a plane, when all the hyped media coverage is removed, cloud technology is simply the most efficient and reliable way to deliver technology for your business.  Just like the truth: “You’re more likely to crash on the way to the airport, than to crash on the plane flight,” the same can be said about the reliability of the cloud: “You’re more likely to lose data with your traditional IT methods, than on the cloud.”  

IS Support is committed to providing your companies technology needs and as a small business in Houston, we are experts in helping local businesses make technology an asset, not an expense.  Since partnering with iland Cloud Infrastructure in 2010, IS Support is dedicated to becoming a leader in cloud technology for your business.  Iland offers partners a fully redundant private or public environment and have an amazing business continuity service that we allow clients to leverage.

If doubts about Cloud technology makes you feel like flying for the first time, let IS Support help ease those reservations. Contact us today, for more information on how Cloud technology can help take your business to the next level

Importance of Having a Reliable Printer

The printer: though it’s arguably one of the most important necessities in a small business environment, it can also be one of the most overlooked, under appreciated items for your company.  Let’s stop thinking of the office’s old Xerox as something as basic the mini-fridge, desk chair or file cabinet.  Know this – if your printer is three years old or more, it could be costing your work group more than you imagine in productivity, repair, security risk and even environmental impact.

Don’t let something like a printer keep your company from growing.  Xerox has provided great solutions for work group color printers for under $300.  Find out if you need a printer upgrade and stay up to date on technology that can help your business grow.  Once you have the printer covered, make the other technologies for your business an asset also: with a niche in helping small businesses with their IT solutions, IS Support is happy to help with all of your IT needs.  Contact us today!

Are You Confused About Private vs. Public Cloud?

ConnectedPlanetOnline.com outlines a recent survey cited in CIO showing that 76% of IT decision-makers will focus initially or, in the case of 33% of respondents, exclusively on the private cloud -- especially organizations particularly sensitive to security and regulatory compliance concerns. The survey further states that the preception is that private clouds foster more security. Although, as pinted out in the CIO survey, building a private cloud using internal resources and data centers does not necessarily translate to better securty.

We've got clear solutions for you at IS Support. We'll take into consideration which applications are mission-critical and non-critical, and your timeline for implementation before we make a final recommendation. Our goal? Implementing a solid virtualization strategy that you can trust and cut your expenses over the long term. Please contact one of our Cloud Consultants for an evaluation.

ConnectedPlanetOnline article

IS Support Cloud Consultant

IS SUPPORT INVITES YOU TO A HYPER-V EVENT

IS Support invites you to the following event:
Hyper-V And How It Will Impact Your Business

Join us May 5, 2011, for a cloud power event and we’ll show you how our expertise and Microsoft cloud solutions can help you:

• Reduce your capital expenses
• Save money by paying for what you use
• Get to market faster by leveraging your existing IT skill investments Perfect for CIOs or any executive interested in the power of cloud technology.

Register today for this one-hour power event!

WILL CLOUD COMPUTING FIRMS EVER CONSOLIDATE?

It's a possibility. In a recent CloudTweaks blog by Sourya Biswas, the idea that some of the larger companies such as HP may entertain the option of acquiring smaller successful cloud computing firms to gain market share is a not too distant reality. Their new CEO believes HP's future lies in the cloud and has been quoted saying, "Everything that we do in the future will be delivered as a service." Salesforce.com has already acquired four companies in the last four months. It's inevitable - large-scale consolidation will most likely happen in the future.

IS Support, established in 2002, has experienced this growth in their cloud offering as well. CEO Steve Combs commented, "Demand for cloud service is growing rapidly. We're pleased to see the recent interest from our clients to convert to the cloud. Although we'll continue to offer other products and services such as TeleCom and Software & Hardware, cloud computing is the next big thing."

Click here to view IS Support's complete products & services.

Click here to view the CloudTweaks article.

WHY IS JOLIECLOUD REBRANDING ITS NAME?

Joliecloud recently announced several major changes to its core products. Joliecloud’s online operating system was doing personal cloud computing long before Google's Chrome OS ever existed.

Their first big change is being rebranded from "Jolicloud" to "Joli OS," in order to avoid confusion with the company's other product, its online desktop. Jolicloud pushed its software to early adopters as a way to get in the game of cloud computing. But recently, it repositioned its OS as a way to cloud-enable and speed up older machines, even those with as little as 348 MB of RAM. To read the Jolicloud article found on NYTimes.com, click here.

DOES YOUR COMPANY NEED TO BE IN A CLOUD?

Being in a Cloud could be advantageous to your business because you’ll have immediate access to a broad range of applications. You can avoid capital expenditure on hardware, software, and services over the long term while relieving your firm of the need to store information on PCs, mobile devices or gadgets. Instead, the information can be quickly and easily accessed via the Internet. IS Support offers a free analysis that can help you determine if immediate access to a broad range of applications will improve your bottom line, give our Cloud Consultants a call or email. We’ll set you up with a no obligation FREE ANALYSIS today.