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The Conference Room: Up in the Air

by Editorial Staff--South Jersey Biz
Cloud computing is viewed by many as a great cost-saving measure, yet there are holdouts not quite ready to put something as important as Internet security in someone else’s hands. Though the term makes it sound as if your vital business information is floating around in cyberspace, these experts insist cloud computing is safe, reliable and the way of the future. “This is great for companies that have a dispar­ately located workforce, or for employees who need to access resources from the road or home.”

Brian Flynn (pictured, left), VicePresident of Operations
Xtel Communications, Marlton
“Cloud computing allows companies to change their IT expenditures from capital to operational expenditures. This is because there is no hardware or software to buy. Necessary disk space and applications are leased to the companies through service providers. By leasing disk space and applications, rather than buying the necessary infrastructure to support your applications (such as e-mail and collaboration tools), you can concentrate your resources (both capital and human capital) on the things that actually make you money. Once your data is in the cloud, it can be accessed from anywhere. … Your employees will easily be able to access business critical resources from the cloud through the Internet, regardless of location. This simultaneously increases business efficiencies and substantially decreases IT and network infrastructure costs.”

“On average, security for cloud offerings is more robust than the systems most businesses have in place locally.”

Chris Miles (pictured, right), CEO
Miles Technologies, Moorestown
“Most of us are already using cloud computing in some form, whether it’s an online data backup service like Mozy, programs like Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft Live, or even Apple’s iCloud service. All of these services are considered cloud computing because the service is provided via the Internet, rather than locally on each individual computer. As for security, there is always the possibility of an intrusion when you are using an Internet connection. However, cloud providers generally devote more resources to security than an individual company is able to with its own local network. … Cloud computing has many benefits—cost savings and extending the life of otherwise outdated hardware, just to name a few. Overall, cloud computing generally offers more secure options than an internal infrastructure normally would.”

Published (and copyrighted) in South Jersey Biz, Volume 2, Issue 3 (March, 2012).
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