Thursday, March 3, 2011

Cloud Servers: What It Means for You

You’ve heard it whispered about at business conferences over the last few years – that thing the techies are excitedly discussing in corners and dropping into conversation when they hope their bosses are paying attention.

Every time the guys who make sure your office runs along at twenty-first century speed get themselves together to discuss anything, money seems fly from you pockets, doesn’t it?

Well this time, it’s a little different. The buzzword right now is one you might not be familiar with but you’ll learn to love it. And best of all? It doesn’t mean you have to get a whole new room of computer equipment that you don’t know how to personally use.

Cloud servers and cloud computing are not all that new of an idea. People have actually been using these infrastructures with increasing regularity over the last few years – they just didn’t always have the label that they deserved.

At its heart, the cloud being referred to is a third party system that you access through the internet to get at files, information, servers and other users. That’s the easiest way to think about it, and the example I’m about to give you will make it even more clear.

Every time you upload a document to GoogleDocs so your coworker can grab it quickly from a computer across the country, you’re using cloud technology.

It’s all about real time. It’s all about access. It’s all about being able to get what you want when you want without having to worry that the stacks of metal and wires in your IT closet or IT room aren’t overheating, misfiring or anything of the like. It’s all online, and it lets you do business in real time.

Cloud technology is about taking the room full of gear out of your hands. It might take you a while to get there. You may need to do some moving around of equipment and personnel but I can help you figure out what systems will work best for you.

The thing to keep in mind is that soon, those cords and many, many weighty servers that have kept you in the office, at your desk, tied to your desktop computer in the past could be replaced by an internet connection if you work your transition to this new system correctly.

So next time you hear about this new technology and start to sweat thinking of money you’ll have to lay out in another long line of improvements, try to relax and remember that technology innovations really are improvements for everyone involved.