Adoption of 'cloud computing' is a major shift in the way software is bought and used by companies. Nowhere is the change bigger than in the small company and the start-up. Cloud based software or Software as a Service ('SaaS') requires no equipment to be bought or maintained by businesses beyond a laptop or workstation. Arguments about which platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) all become even more academic than they were in the past. The corner stone of any cloud strategy for start-ups and SME's is Google Apps. Google Apps is a cloud based solution that provides a suite of productivity tools that can be accessed from anywhere. The user friendly Gmail system can become your day-to-day email interface or Apps can be configured to work with Outlook like a traditional mail server if that’s what you are used to. You will still have the flexibility of accessing your email from other computers when you travel without cumbersome VPN’s and remote access systems. Along with the core tools (mail, calendar, documents, intranet and web sites) the Google Aps market place lets you integrate tools CRM, Accounting, Project management and so on provided by Google partners. Google Aps allows a small business or start-up to have a full IT infrastructure at a very low cost. In addition you will appear to the outside world to have all the systems of a much larger company, emails from your own domain, automated calendering and collaboration tools. Remote working with outsourcing partners or part-time staff is no more difficult than if they were on a corporate network. Communications are secured with SSL to provide the privacy and security. Teamed with other free and low cost cloud based tools such as Skype for telephony your company can reduce IT & C costs while increasing the features and functionality of your IT infrastructure. |
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