Moving to the cloud is becoming increasingly common.  Businesses and individuals alike are quickly embracing the change and enjoying the results.  But a lot of people still don’t understand what the cloud is and how it operates.  As a result, they are reluctant to employ it, partly because they’re unaware that they may already being using it.

Jamie D’Agostino of Netology and Steve Nikolopoulos of Ikon Document Services  stood before a group of over 20 lawyers at the office of the Fairfield County Bar Association on Jan. 17, 2012, and educated them about the cloud and all that it entails. The afternoon concluded on a high note with D’Agostino and Nikolopoulos fielding numerous questions.

So, what is the cloud?  The cloud started out as something that was used to represent the public telephone network in diagrams.  Later, it was used to represent the Internet and other wide area networks (WAN), also in diagrams.  Today, it is simply a metaphor for the Internet. But how does the cloud work?

The cloud has three distinct designs. The most common design is apps in the cloud. The all apps in the cloud design follows the IaaS model. Finally, the hybrid design offers high availability and survivability. Although the cloud has three designs, it has only two types:  public and private.

The public cloud is multitenancy, which means that a single instance of the software runs on a server that serves multiple client organizations or tenants.  In other words, multiple customers share the same application, running on the same operating system, on the same hardware, with the same data-storage mechanism.  And they have no idea where their data is physically located.  Examples of public cloud are Microsoft Office 365, Google Apps and Facebook.

The private cloud, on the other hand, involves virtualization, where components are abstracted, enabling each customer application to appear to run on a separate physical machine.  It’s self-contained and part of your company’s network. You know where your data is physically located.  This happens at the operating system level.  It’s kind of like renting storage space.  You have your own pod in which to store all of your company’s old paper records. Conversely, if you send your company’s records to a storage warehouse, you have no idea where those records are located, and they’re mingling with other companies’ records.

Cloud services use a pay-as-you go, utility-based pricing model that’s similar to the way you pay for electricity. And cloud services come in a variety of forms like software as a service (SaaS), hardware as a service (HaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and so on.

Cloud storage is important for businesses because it allows them to grow without having to worry about the trouble and expense involved with buying new servers. Their information is safely stored in either a public or private cloud, and as they accumulate more data, their cloud storage providers are prepared to accommodate them. Examples of cloud storage companies are Dropbox, SugarSync and Mozy.

A lot of people who are reluctant to move their companies’ data to the cloud probably don’t even realize that they’re already using the cloud every time they log in to their personal Facebook accounts. Moving to the cloud, especially the public cloud, can be scary. The dangers of the cloud are the dangers of the Internet. But there are a lot of benefits to moving to the cloud, particularly for small businesses that are experiencing rapid growth.

Netology specializes in helping Stamford business with full IT support and consulting.  Need answers regarding cloud services or how cloud computing can help your business leverage technology more efficiently.  Call Netology today to learn more about our Stamford IT Support programs.