Virtualization is a key player in today’s efficient workplace. Businesses of all kinds are looking to expand and enhance the way that they function on a fundamental level, and virtualization offers never before seen opportunities to cut down redundancies and implement new methods to improve operations.
Generally, small businesses will only have, at the most, a couple of servers in the office that are dedicated to storing or sharing data across an in-house network. These machines are absolutely critical to the success of your organization, as without them, you wouldn’t be able to access or store important information. If you want to optimize the way your server infrastructure is set up, however, virtual cloud-based servers can offer a significant benefit for your organization.
By migrating your data to a cloud-based server infrastructure, you can take advantage of a virtual environment that’s specifically designed with your business’s needs in mind. Even better is if you get a third party to outsource the management and maintenance of such an infrastructure. This lets you take advantage of many other great benefits:
Reduced Costs
Just like any other machine in your office, physical server units rely on utilities such as electricity. Unfortunately, these utilities are also rather expensive in large quantities, considering how much energy it costs to cool down systems that generate a considerable amount of heat. Migrating your physical servers to the cloud-based model means that your data is stored in the cloud on a virtual server, which eliminates these costs and alleviates any time spent on the upkeep of such technology.
Improved Flexibility
Flexibility is one of the main selling points of cloud-based servers. When you store data and applications in the cloud, anyone with credentials and access to the Internet can gain access to them easily enough. Even better, it can all be accessed on a plethora of connected devices as long as they are approved by your IT department. This provides considerable flexibility to your busier workers, allowing them to do more traveling to conferences or phoning into meetings.
Consolidate Your Infrastructure
Does your business use legacy applications? If so, you’ll appreciate this major perk of using virtual and cloud-based servers. You’ll know that there can be complications with your legacy applications and server operating systems, which means that you would ordinarily have to run separate server units on different OSes for all of your legacy applications. However, you can partition your virtual servers to account for these various operating systems, meaning that you can run both your legacy apps and more recent operating systems on the same units. Since you don’t need to run as many server units, this eliminates costs and simplifies your infrastructure.
Does your business struggle with managing server units? You can outsource this responsibility to make the process much easier and more efficient for your operations. To learn more, reach out to us at 800.394.2301.
Let’s say that you are a consumer looking to take advantage of data backup in an affordable way. You want a way to keep your data safe in the event of a disaster. For the average PC user, Google Drive now allows users to take backups of specific files and folders via the Backup and Sync application on their desktop PC.
You need to quickly move documents from one computer to another. Do you reach for a USB Thumb drive? You may want to think twice and entrust the cloud to your data. Let’s talk about why.
A Brief History of Recent Data Storage Methods
Throughout the 1990s, NAND flash memory--which is what stores the data on a USB flash drive--was progressively becoming more and more affordable. The first company to sell a USB Flash Drive was a Singaporean company Trek 2000 International, who released their proprietary ThumbDrive at the beginning of 2000. Later that year, IBM became the first producer to sell USB flash drives in the United States with their product, DiskOnKey.
The cloud, believe it or not, was thought up in 1969 by J.C.R. Licklider. His idea was an online storage system that could be accessed from an Internet connection anywhere in the world--an idea that had to wait until the technology was there to support it. Once it was, many well-known companies (like Google and Amazon) were quick to leverage the cloud to provide utilities, including data storage capabilities.
Comparing the Two...
...however, there isn’t much of a comparison. The biggest benefit that a USB flash drive has to offer is the fact that it doesn’t rely on an Internet connection to access files. Otherwise, there isn’t much to be said about them that’s positive other than the convenience of portability. They’re easily infected by malicious programs, easy to lose, and easily stolen. Plus, they don’t offer near the collaborative abilities that the cloud does.
Cloud storage is, first and foremost, very secure against threats and malware, and backed up to protect your data against any circumstances that might put it at risk. Security mostly includes AES-256 encryption and superior access control through multi-factor authentication. As far as collaboration goes, the cloud offers much more utility than passing around a USB drive ever could.
The cloud allows you to work on your documents and data from any device with an Internet connection (we recommend that you make sure your connection is secure), sharing access with any other user by sharing a simple link. Also unlike the USB device, which only allows a single person to work on a file at a time, multiple users can manipulate the data simultaneously, simplifying any responsibilities that require collaboration.
While the USB thumb drive had its moment in computing history to be the star of data storage and sharing, that title has moved on to the cloud. Has your business done the same?
Infradapt can help you make the move to the cloud. Call us at 800.394.2301 for more details.
Cloud technology has become an integral part of doing business today. This has led to a need for, and subsequent availability of, cloud services from a variety of sources to be able to meet the needs of a business. These services aren’t all created equally, however, and as a result, the source of cloud services is a critical consideration to take into account when choosing a provider.