Cloud Computing Safety and Security

The greatest fear when operating on the cloud is security concerns. After all, you can never be sure that your information stored online wont be broken into by hackers. When talking about Cloud security, we’re usually referring to computer security, network security and information security. When signing contracts with the provider, the following is a checklist of what you should look out for:

1.     Provider should have deterrent controls: much like a fence around your house

2.     Preventative controls: establish firewalls

3.     Corrective controls: fights of attacks as it is occurring

4.     Detective controls: alerts/ notifications when an attack occurs

Furthermore, each company should have its own privacy settings and unique identify access management to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the Cloud.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing_security

Analysis of Cloud on small/ mid size businesses

When applying the Cloud, two key questions to ask is whether the company can increase productivity and whether this new trend can assist the company in developing competitive advantage.

In the past, companies focus on increasing product quality and reducing associated cost. Now, as industries move to perfect competition and globalization, the dynamics of competition has intensified significantly. The revolution of Internet communication, affordable mobile devices and accessible platforms has all led to the age of the Cloud. Companies like Google, IBM, Microsoft and Apple are all investing heavily in order to maintain competitiveness. At the same time, company with fewer resources also took advantage of the trend and prospered. For example, Facebook and Alibaba in China.

Cloud Computing is disruptive not only in its ability to reduce cost (eliminate the need for system maintenance/ upgrades), but also breaks the time and geographic limitations. However, companies must keep three core values in mind: leading products, efficient operations and healthy customer relationships. For small/ mid size business, I recommend that they outsource their IT when initiating the Cloud. With limited resources they should focus on their core competencies. Cloud computing should not serve as a competitive advantage itself, but instead a way of enhancing efficiency. 

Three Ways for Corporations to Cloud Compute

Cloud Computing means running and processing information through the Internet. It automatically breaks down the complex computing process into various sub processes. Then through parallel calculation by many servers, the resulting data is sent back to the Cloud client. Cloud clients do not require any professional knowledge on Cloud computing and related infrastructure. Cloud computing includes three levels of service: IaaS, PaaS and SaaS.

IaaS (infrastructure as a Service) means providing the necessary infrastructure for computing. Infrastructure include servers, network equipment, RAM, disk, CPU and data center.

PaaS (Platform as a Service) basically provides a platform allowing developers flexibility to customize web applications. Cloud clients or users could then have direct access through the Internet without downloading or installing.

SaaS (Software as a Service) is a software application model. In this model, software is controlled by the service provider then distributed to users through the Internet. No installation or upgrades are required on the client end. Examples include Google Docs, Dropbox and EverNote.

To sum up, there are basically two kinds of Cloud Computing:

1.     Cloud Computing Services: Some Internet services use one browser and process/ saves data through the Internet. This kind of Cloud Computing is an extension of SaaS and therefore does not require users to worry about expanding available space.

2.     Cloud Computing Technologies: This kind of Cloud Computing uses the “cloud” concept and pulls multiple computers together to process, document and backup one another. 

Easy way with Google (Part 2 of 2)

Google Drive

Do you remember the days where only one person can work on a document before other do revisions to prevent overlapping and inconsistency? Now, thanks to Google Drive, multiple people are allowed to work on one document simultaneously. As long as you have access to the internet, you can access and modify any shared document on the Cloud. This is particularly helpful when conducting team projects such as writing reports, business plans, taking notes, sharing information, brainstorming etc. So completely serve your needs, Google Drive provides 5 GB of free storage for each of your users and also provide documents shared in Word, Excel and PowerPoint format.

                           

Personal Sites

Each corporate department or business unit requires a channel for internal communication, one that is easy to use and can keep constant track of records. Google Drive provides just that. With hundreds of pre-build templates, you can simply chose one and start sharing meeting schedules, events, news broadcast and presentations on your personalized private page. Historical posts would also be easy to locate through the built in Google search engine.

Vault

If you are responsible for processing or documenting massive amount of information, Google Vault can certainly make your job easier. The Vault allows you store information based on your own category preference and through E- discovery, you can pull out all related documentation ever record with a simple search.

See! Getting yourself on the Cloud really isn’t as hard as you imagined. By applying these simple applications, your work place efficiency can be enhanced dramatically. 

Reference: http://www.google.com/intl/en/enterprise/apps/business/products.html#calendar