Tabush Group's Cloud & Managed IT Blog

Just about every business today uses the cloud.

Back in 2006, companies large and small had all of their IT systems running on servers and software that lived within the company’s walls. Fast forward just ten years to 2016, and it’s very hard to find a business that does not use the cloud for some part of their IT.

By definition, cloud means an IT system or application that lives in a remote datacenter and is managed by a third party provider, as opposed to residing on a server in the customer’s location.  

When it’s done right, the cloud works brilliantly for businesses. Cloud systems are reliable, secure, and efficient. They easily scale with growing companies. Most companies we surveyed are using a cloud email service, such as Office 365 or Google Apps, both of which are great systems (although significantly different in many ways). But there is so much more than email that small businesses can and should be doing in the cloud. 

Virtual desktops are the big thing for businesses these days. Over the past few years, virtual desktops (also known as VDI, Desktop-as-a-Service or DaaS, and hosted desktops) have proven to be a more secure, stable, and scalable option than the traditional desktop and server model for small businesses, and most importantly, technology finally exists to deliver the right performance at the right price.

If your company isn't already using virtual desktops, instead of looking at a server upgrade or refresh of your desktop computers, consider virtual desktops as the next step to take for your company’s IT infrastructure. In the process, be sure to consider whether you should have your virtual desktops hosted in a private or a public cloud.

I’m often asked: “Are all types of cloud made equal?” The simple answer is: no.

There are many different types of cloud services, and like any other service you utilize for your firm, not all service partners are the right fit for your firm and needs.

To make sure you select the right cloud service and partner, it’s important to ask the right questions.

Over the past few years, a very common question I’m asked by potential clients and colleagues is “whose cloud do you use?” and when I tell them that we built our own, they’re often puzzled and surprised. “Why not just use Amazon – isn’t it so much cheaper and better?” they ask me. There are several reasons why we’ve built our own cloud and don’t plan on moving to a public cloud anytime soon.

Having helped create, implement, manage, and restore backup and disaster recovery plans for dozens of firms, the good news is that a solid backup plan is very doable; the bad news is that it’s not as simple as you may think. Here are some experience shares and reality checks.

As you may have heard, we made an official announcement today about the successful launch of Boxtop™, an all-in-one cloud IT solution for small businesses that includes virtual desktops, infrastructure, data storage, backups, security, dedicated service, and unlimited tech support. It’s the result of a lot of hard work from our engineering and product teams, and I’m really proud of what we’ve accomplished!

As I wrote about at the beginning of the year, desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) is a sector of technology that will really grow this year. And, this is why:

 A few days ago, Verizon announced they are shutting down their public cloud services. Customers have a month to migrate whatever servers and systems they run off of Verizon’s cloud and onto a new provider. If a month sounds like a long time to you, you’re probably not the person responsible for your company’s IT.

As companies look to improve their IT system’s performance, security and productivity, one of the key words thrown around is “Cloud”— Organizations then think, “We need to be in the cloud!” The perception is that it will save money, can be done quite simply and will eradicate outages and downtime. If only it were that straight forward. First, it is important to understand what the cloud is and what it can actually do for your business.

Basically, the cloud is thousands of interconnected datacenters that provide a place for servers to be moved to, data to be stored on and services and applications to be hosted on. It is likely that you are thinking that you already have a server/systems in your office that already does this for you, so why do you need to relocate to the cloud?