Cloud Computing Services
If your business is growing and your needs are changing, our Cloud Services might be the right choice for you.
If you’ve never considered cloud services for your business, now might be the right time. If your business is growing, there’s a good chance that you need to add new server resources. Or maybe your current server is old, failing or running too slowly to support your current workload. In the past, when businesses find themselves in these situations, they are looking at a significant investment in new server hardware and software. But these days companies are frequently switching to cloud services for their business and asking Digital Uppercut to make it all work seamlessly together with their on-premise network.
These days, large companies like Amazon and Microsoft offer the functionality of local on-premise services such as computing power, database storage, and other IT resources. The services are delivered on-demand and accessed through fast internet connections. So rather than buying and installing a new database server or local accounting system, you can essentially rent those same services over the internet.
Getting Started With Cloud Computing
Each time our clients need to add new services, we do an analysis to determine if it makes more sense for them to add those services in the cloud, at their facility, or some hybrid solution that mixes them both.
For example, a recent client of ours has a large MAS 90 accounting system running on an old, dying server. And as we were talking with them about a solution to their problem, we explained the advantages of cloud services.
- No up-front cost or lease obligation for the hardware.
- No up-front hardware installation costs
- No related hardware maintenance fees
- No physical security requirements
- No cooling or environmental requirements
- No rackspace, wiring or related supporting equipment
- Simple upgrades and downgrades
- Works great for companies with multiple locations
We also explained the disadvantages of cloud computing, which are:
- Over time, the monthly fees cost more than the equipment and related equipment
- Your connectivity to your data is dependent on your internet connection
- If your cloud computing platform is not set up properly, your data could be exposed
- You don’t have full control over your data
- You don’t have full control over your infrastructure
- Generally speaking, you are relying on someone else to take good care of some very important parts of your business.
We go through these discussions with all our clients each time they need to add or replace on-premise services.
Keeping Cloud Services Secure
As with your on-premise equipment, your cloud services need to be properly configured to prevent data breaches and security issues. The physical barriers presented by on-premise equipment -- the first line of defense for your equipment -- just aren’t there for cloud services. Cloud services are, by their very nature, designed to be accessible from almost anywhere.
Threats to your cloud services can be broken down into two parts -- those that originate on the cloud services themselves, and those that can begin at your facility.
For example, Amazon’s S3 is an excellent storage platform, but if configured improperly, can accidentally make your data visible to the public...even allow your data to show up in Google search results. That’s why we fully secure all our clients’ cloud services, regardless of the service we are using.
We also protect the security of your cloud services by properly securing the path from your premises.
Our cloud security “best practices” include:
- Access control
- Identity Management
- Encryption
- Logging
- Behavior Monitoring
- Intrusion Detection
- System Health Monitoring
- ...and more
Cloud Services Disaster Recovery
Many of our clients are under the assumption that cloud services providers automatically backup all of their cloud data, but this is unfortunately not the case. Just as you need to backup your on-premise data, you need a disaster recovery plan for your cloud-stored data and services as well. Digital Uppercut is an expert in configuring disaster recovery plans for on-premise and cloud-based services.
Cloud Services for Health Care
Medical offices are frequently migrating to the cloud as a way to save on the physical space required for their offices, as well as making their services more efficient and secure. But medical offices have additional regulatory compliance requirements. HIPAA regulations are long and complex, but Digital Uppercut is a leader in HIPAA compliance services for both on-premise and cloud computing services.
Digital Uppercut - The Cloud Services Experts
More and more companies are turning to the cloud for some of the services that they need to run and grow their business. If your company is considering replacing or adding new equipment to your network, call us at 818-913-1335 or contact Digital Uppercut, the Cloud Services experts. We’ll help you decide whether cloud computing is the right choice for you, and to properly select those services for you. Then we help to provision, configure and secure your data.