Hello, Future: Cloud Computing For Small Businesses

Online, May 29, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Ah, "cloud computing," the buzz word that can solve all of your problems, with a definition no one can agree on. Why so many definitions? What's the right answer?

The struggle to define cloud computing comes from a marketing-driven need to pigeonhole cloud computing as a specific product, but it's not. Cloud computing is a new way of utilizing technology where the user accesses computing resources over the Internet. The Internet is "the cloud."

Gmail, iTunes, and salesforce.com are all simple examples of cloud computing. But the market has evolved. Cloud computing solutions now give you the power to centralize all of your company information into a secure and accessible location. Furthermore, you can now centralize your IT infrastructure and eliminate the need to have desktops, servers, and a full IT staff in-house.

These enterprise-class cloud computing solutions have traditionally only been available to "the big guys," through providers like Amazon EC2, Rackspace, and Go Grid. Well not anymore! Now the small and medium sized business (SMB) has access to secure, infinitely-scalable, and affordable cloud computing solutions that they do not have to support, monitor, or implement themselves.

What does this mean for the SMB? A lot. These cloud computing solutions provide a substantial decrease in operating costs, improved resource management, and a leg up on their competition.

And what makes this possible? Technology, of course. More specifically, a combination of technology, know-how, and vision.

5N Cloud, a Denver, CO based company, has been working over the last three years to create cloud computing solutions for the SMB, and more specifically for those in the financial, legal, healthcare, and other security-sensitive industries. In addition to the high-security nature of their cloud, they have also designed their solutions with regulatory compliance in mind, making them one of the first cloud computing providers to do so. Before 5N Cloud, businesses within these industries could not safely move their IT resources into the cloud.

Unlike the large cloud computing providers, 5N Cloud's offerings are fully supported. This means that you don't need to have any knowledge of how to implement and manage cloud computing solutions. All of 5N Cloud's offerings are backed by strict service level agreements (SLA's) throughout the entire implementation process and for the lifetime of the customer. Often times, customer service falls through the cracks in IT companies. These days, latencies and deficiencies in customer service can mean the difference in your business making money today and missing an opportunity all together.

Using these recent advances in cloud computing, SMBs with little to no IT support can now quickly gain a competitive advantage. Dodds Wealth Management, a Denver financial advisement firm, hired 5N Cloud during the 1st quarter of 2010 to implement their 5N Anyware Disaster Recovery™. Dodds forethought paid off! Their servers crashed just prior to their annual financial audit. 5N Cloud was able to quickly salvage all of Dodds' sensitive information on their servers and have them up and running the next day. On top of this rapid response, 5N Cloud made sure Dodds was prepared for their financial audit, ensuring they quickly and easily passed their audit. Andrew Dodds, the president of the firm, put the figure that 5N Cloud saved his company at "no less than $250,000."

5N Anyware Disaster Recovery™ is the cloud technology that enabled Dodds' systems to be recovered so quickly. 5N Anyware Disaster Recovery™ allows businesses to continuously back-up their servers and desktops. In the event of a system failure, 5N Cloud can have all of the company's information available and their systems back on-line within 8 hours. Considering the service starts at $1/GB, the amount of money this could save a business is staggering.

Dodds' scenario also proves that you don't need a full migration into the cloud in order to realize its benefits. 5N Cloud realizes that a complete cloud integration might be a little daunting for some, but doesn't want to deny SMBs all of the benefits cloud computing has to offer.

Other benefits of utilizing 5N Cloud's Anyware offerings include never having to update your systems, upgrade your hardware, and stay on top of firewall and antivirus protection.

Finally, cloud computing opens up a whole new world for traveling businesspeople, telecommuters, and employees that can't make it into the office due to weather conditions or illness. These knowledge workers can now access their company's entire network from any configured laptop or home desktop, anywhere in the world.

It's companies like 5N Cloud that pave the way for the adoption of the next wave of evolved technology. Imagine a world where all you need is a computer that connects to the internet and you pay a monthly utility bill for only the computer resources you need. Hello, future.

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