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What to Know About Safely Moving Your Data to the Cloud

August 7, 2017 by teleconsult

Whenever company data needs to be transferred from one place to another, a series of questions should be answered, particularly in cloud-based migrations.

First, ask yourself where your sensitive data is going. If it’s going to the cloud, can you rest assured that the cloud is going to continue to dominate for years to come? If the numbers related to cloud adoption keep growing, the answer to that question is a resounding “yes.”

Interest in the Cloud Is Growing
Gartner has predicted that the worldwide public cloud industry will grow 18 percent this year. Furthermore, nearly 75 percent of tech CFOs are saying cloud computing will have the most measurable impact on their organization this year.

Many companies are utilizing a hybrid cloud platform, which is increasingly popular because it allows a company to keep data on-site, while less critical data can be moved off-site. However, in a recent RightScale survey, 32 percent of respondents said their IT departments weren’t able to manage increasing workloads in the cloud – and this is a trend that seems to be growing.

IoT Taking Over
The Internet of Things (IoT) is among the hottest technology trends happening today, and it’s also driving the adoption of cloud-based solutions.
Many companies still rely on their premise-based IT software and the tools that go with it, but a larger trend is for cloud-based applications to take over because they offer more functionality than legacy systems. This assists companies in improving performance and productivity.

Confronting Fear
There are enterprises that still have concerns regarding their data in the cloud despite all of its advantages. Some have fears regarding getting locked in with a vendor, worrying that it comes time to migrate data and the cost of that migration process is revealed, it will be too late to back out.

There is also a rising concern related to application security even though most enterprises trust the cloud infrastructure.

Getting Prepared for the Move
What can you do to protect your data as you move it to the cloud? First, you have to know your data – what’s important, what’s not, what you want to catalog, and what should remain behind.
You also need to know your options and which cloud type fits you best: private, public, hybrid, or community. Once you’ve made that decision, determine who is accountable for the data that is collected. Further, encrypting data is important, and you need to decide who controls access to your encryption keys.
Backing up your data is among the first lines of defense, so make sure you’ve done this before you even start considering cloud-based vendors for data storage. Make sure the data is backed up in a fault domain that is distinct from where it is stored in production.

At TeleConsult, we know some of our clients have been apprehensive about the cloud, but we’ve proven that there is nothing to fear. We know how to manage a data center and keep our clients’ data secure and always available. Talk to us about what you should do before you migrate to the cloud.

What’s Developing in Cloud Storage Technology

June 19, 2017 by teleconsult

As data multiplies exponentially, companies are looking for low-cost solutions for storage of that data. Cloud storage technology is changing rapidly to meet demand, with developers creating storage options that are affordable and dynamic, handling various types of data with dexterity.

Much of the data that companies need to store is cold data that will rarely be accessed, but must be kept for regulatory purposes or to meet company standards of data storage. The variable formats of data, which can be heavy with images and video, require agility in storage options.

There are new developments in cloud storage that are making it increasingly affordable for companies to store large data files:

The cost of cloud storage will get even better. Companies excited about the low cost of cloud storage will be happy to know that costs are expected to improve with the transition from virtual machines to object storage. 451 Research reports that object storage costs have declined 14 percent in the past year, compared to virtual machines showing a five percent cut in costs. Costs are expected to drop as object storage becomes more available for mainstream enterprises.

Companies are prioritizing cloud use for disaster recovery and archiving. This is the most popular choice for introducing cloud storage, with 36 percent of cloud users listing disaster recovery as their priority for the technology. Coming in second was backup and general storage. Users generally cite the low cost as their reason for implementing a cloud solution, but the ease of management and recovery speed are also pushing the use of cloud.

Cloud storage is integrating well with on-premises software applications. Many companies are opting for a hybrid solution where they can store long-term data on the cloud while employing on-premises enterprise systems. Many suppliers of on-premises software are including integration with cloud storage in their updates. Oracle recently provided a link to its storage cloud, giving users a cloud option without having to pay for cloud licensing or gateways.

Storage solutions across third-party cloud suppliers are becoming more manageable. New developments are making it easier for a company to have cloud storage integrated across third party cloud programs. For instance, NextCloud has introduced a blockchain solution, giving enterprises the ability to create encrypted storage pools with their chosen providers. Blockchain is usually used for financial data to manage digital currency, but it is proving useful in a variety of areas.

Looking for the latest in cloud storage solutions for your company? Give TeleConsult Solutions a call to find out why we are the ideal partner for determining your cloud storage needs and facilitating a seamless integration of your solution.

Making a Smooth Cloud Transition

May 22, 2017 by teleconsult

The cloud is no longer considered a fad. It is increasingly becoming the home of many businesses that are leaving their on-premise hardware behind. Not only does cloud save money, it also makes the workplace more productive. Many businesses are only partially in the cloud, taking advance of SaaS platforms that suit their needs. Here’s what any business needs to know to make a smooth cloud transition.

Where the Cloud Is Going

The cloud market is expected to reach $4.46 billon globally by 2021 with the help of BYOD policies. Allowing employees to bring their own devices is one way companies are easing into a cloud environment. The fact that BYOD significantly cuts hardware and maintenance costs makes it an attractive form of quick change. SaaS platforms lead to further savings, since they involve paying for one license as opposed to several.

Decision makers also view VoIP as a practical alternative to a traditional land line. Using an internet connection for communication cuts costs enormously on long distance calls, which is important to global businesses. Cloud providers that offer SMS are gaining favor over traditional communications providers. More and more business professionals are using embedded communications rather than standalone solutions.

The shift toward cloud-based services has much to do with the fact that it’s more expensive and less secure to run and maintain on-premise infrastructure. Hardware that must be replaced every five to ten years becomes a huge expense if every employee is assigned their own machine owned by the company. A cloud transition opens the door for less focus on technical aspects and more focus on the actual business. This shift in focus leads to improved business productivity.

Cloud Configurations

When a business decides on making a cloud transition, they have various configurations to choose from. Purpose-built software solutions provide embedded experiences. Cloud-based PBX technology limits disruption while providing basic, familiar capabilities for customers. The be your own carrier (BYOC) approach is based on the concept of Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS), which allows developers to create customized applications. It frees developers from operating network infrastructure while having control over the customer experience.

Management must decide on a configuration then choose a service provider after carefully reviewing the options. While switching service providers can be complex, it can also make a big difference in profits and reputation. If the service regularly drops calls or makes communication difficult, it’s necessary to switch to a more reliable solution. That’s why it’s important to thoroughly research a service provider before committing to an agreement. Here are essential criteria to explore:

quality of service must be carrier-grade
operations must be reliable for automation, call flow design, and support
the degree to which the carrier provides developers access and control
access to telecom data
new development features enhance voice, messaging, and video

Conclusion

Businesses are steadily making a cloud transition to save money and time on managing hardware and software. The growing popularity of VoIP is another example of how the cloud is providing cost efficient solutions to businesses. As long as the service is researched and shown to be reliable, in many cases cloud services are much more economical than traditional equipment or services.

Energizing Business by Moving to the Cloud

April 17, 2017 by teleconsult

Game-changing technology has opened new possibilities for businesses over the last decade. The new landscape is filled with start-ups that wouldn’t have been possible five or ten years ago, and the major player in that evolution is cloud technology. Rather than requiring costly hardware investments, virtual machines and pay-as-you-go applications offer the flexibility and agility demanded in today’s global marketplace. Yet, some companies are still hesitant to embrace the change, and the delay can be costly.

Established organizations with in-house systems often cite concerns like security, cost, disruption to daily operations, and a lack of knowledge about how to make the move when justifying their reluctance to migrate systems and data into the virtual arena. However, those concerns are largely unfounded.

Security

Companies hesitant to adopt cloud computing have vague impressions that security is lacking, but nothing is further from the truth. Providers that host data in a virtual environment take security concerns very seriously because their reputations depend on confidentiality.

Operational Fluidity

In-house data centers are typically the result of years of investment. Hardware, software, and systems that support daily operations seem too intricate to move to a virtual environment, so companies often think that migrating data and applications will present a set of difficulties that will be costly to overcome. However, since legacy systems must be evaluated and updated to meet changing needs, cloud services offer a significant reduction in upkeep expense. Companies that resist the change often find themselves falling behind competitors that have transferred service to cloud computing and can operate on smaller budgets.

Getting Started

Knowing how to begin cloud migration is one of the biggest challenges for many organizations. For those companies, making small changes is the best way to get started. For example:

Move data archives to a cloud storage facility. Instead of storing data on tapes and other methods, the cloud offers a low-cost alternative for storage compliance.
Move one application. Start small by moving something like email. This will give businesses the confidence to move other applications.
Deploy a new application virtually. Keep legacy systems running, but introduce new applications virtually so that mission-critical operations remain in-house.
Employ a hybrid approach. Private options allow businesses to choose which applications to augment virtually for the best performance.

Moving data to a virtual environment offers reduced costs, increased scalability, and dependable business continuity in a secure environment. Businesses that embrace this technology benefit from lasting improvements.

Key SMB Technologies in 2017: What to Watch

February 20, 2017 by teleconsult

Gartner’s recent list of trends in technology for 2017 paint an exceptionally interesting picture for any SMB willing to think big heading into the new year. Although accurate predictions of what the business/technology landscape will look like grow fuzzier and less distinct the further out we look, what seems clear now is that there will be ample opportunities for a forward-thinking SMB to leverage a number of key technologies in order to reach new levels of productivity – and even to deliver entirely new products, services, and customer experiences.

More Mobility

Although this may seem like just more of the same – after all, mobility has been a steadily growing aspect of business tech for years – adoption of services like cloud-based document storage, hosted VoIP, distributed project management, and communications suites are set to reach a critical mass that might just change how the majority of companies do business.

Intelligent Apps

Intelligent apps, sometimes called smart apps, are applications that leverage the burgeoning abilities of artificial intelligence (AI) to support workers in becoming more productive, more creative, and more effective. The ways in which AI can be applied to business apps are already varied and nuanced, and we’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to potential uses.

At the moment, the most commonly used applications involve voice recognition and transcription as well as anticipating the information needs of workers – applications of great utility to an SMB.

Virtual and Augmented Reality

As is so often the case with new technology, what was once developed for the game room is now moving to the board room. Virtual reality (VR) creates an entirely artificial environment that is experienced by the user as though it was real by way of a VR headset. Augmented reality, most recently popularized by the game Pokémon Go, overlays the real world with additional information that only exists digitally, often through the use of a smart phone or tablet.

The human resources/training and customer contact applications of this technology are immediately useful for almost any SMB, and it also has implications, through its use in tele-presence solutions, in allowing a small business to expand operations over a wider geographical area without significantly increasing staffing.

Adaptive Security

Almost a combination of several of the previously mentioned technologies, adaptive security uses a multi-layered security framework and machine learning to identify and remember potential threats and protect against them in the future. This type of security is superior to inert security solutions in that it is always actively scanning the system for threats and breaches. It protects the network proactively rather than reactively, and does so more quickly than any human being could.

The development of cloud services and numerous “as a Service” technologies over the past decade have allowed SMBs to level the playing field and hold their own against much bigger corporations. These new developments might go one step further and allow SMBs to truly take advantage of their adaptability, flexibility, and agility to not just compete with big corporations – but to out-compete them.

The Business Case for Fiber Optics

February 6, 2017 by teleconsult

Fiber optics aren’t new. First developed in the 1970s, they’ve been known for high-speed data transfer for decades. But many CEOs are used to thinking of their business application as limited; aside from a few specific markets, like stock trading or telecommunications, does data speed really have a significant impact?

As the economy becomes ever more digitally supported, the answer has swung to a resounding “Yes!” Fiber optic networks offer benefits to businesses of all sizes, including the following:

Increased employee productivity. Downloading reports, sending files across departments, accessing shared documents, and other business tasks are just one component of the fiber optic benefit. Employees also feel more engaged and can support a faster working pace when the systems they use are more responsive. In the digital age, that often comes down to network connectivity.
Improved VoIP support. Voice over IP is a technology that underpins a number of modern communications technologies, including Google Talk and Skype. VoIP offers numerous benefits over traditional phone services, including lower costs and increased flexibility, especially in BYOD environments or environments with a number of remote workers. And the speed and bandwidth of fiber optic networks puts professional-quality VoIP services within reach for many businesses.
Better disaster recovery prep. It’s all well and good to have a disaster recovery strategy in place, but if a disaster does strike, backing up the company’s data will have been only half the battle. The speed with which a business can recover from a disaster is limited by the speed at which data can transfer from offsite data storage to production servers. Fiber networks can speed this transfer, reducing downtime in critical moments.
Better cloud access. With Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), and numerous other business applications as services flourishing on the cloud, businesses can take advantage of high-quality, well-managed resources with lower overhead costs than in-house management and support. But accessing the cloud requires data transfer, and a slow network can hamper business processes that touch the cloud. High-speed fiber optics alleviate this considerably.
Increased flexibility. Site traffic isn’t a constant, especially for businesses whose demand fluctuates seasonally, or businesses that are launching large sales or promotions. Fiber networks offer increased ability to scale bandwidth without costly additional installations.

Fast data networks are no longer just an impressive technical toy, or an investment that benefits the IT department while leaving other departments unaffected. Instead, they can dramatically increase the overall functioning of a business.

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