Cloud-up your business !

Starting a business and worried about initial large expenses?

Use what the Cloud has to offer to improve your business success!

Watch the following video for a quick introduction:

If you have ever owned a business, or thinking about starting one, you are probably aware of the vast variaty of services that you need to set up only to get your business processes going; email servers, human resources software, accounting programs and web servers are just the most common services in use in almost every business. To that, one need to take into consideration network infrastructures, hardware, server rooms, electricity bills, maintenance costs and so on. Naturally, you are also aware of the expenses associated with these services.

The massive growth in Cloud Computing allows you to significaly  minimize costs and set-up time. It also allows you to hire virtualy no technical team to operate your business IT systems. Yet, down-time related to technical problems or software/hardware upgrades are almost doesn't exist. To those who know something about IT, this is highly impressive.

It is all very nice so far. However, WHERE DO YOU START FROM?!

In order for us to exploit the Cloud advantages, we really need to understand it first.

In a nutshell, like every good thing, the Cloud methodology is divided to 3 layers:

1. Infra-structure (as a Service - IaaS) - virtual machines, servers, network resources, storage, etc.
2. Platform (as a Service - PaaS) - web servers, databases, development tools, etc.
3. Application (Software as a Service - SaaS) - email, virtual desktop, portals, CRM, social networks, etc.
Definitions source: Wikipedia

The simple, most commonly used, is the Application layer, which requires minimum customization, and it is ready to use almost immediately.

Another key term that you need to be familiar with is the Client. And by client, we don't mean customer, but the entity that communicates with the Server. Cloud computing works on a client-server model which means that by using your web-browser, smartphone, terminal, POS (Point of Sale terminal) - the Clients - you can access your email account, CRM system, Calendar, HR system, etc. All of these are applications that runs on servers. In the Cloud, these servers are owned by a third-party company which provide you with the service based on the Internet network.

The following drawing might help you visualize it a bit better:

Image source: Photons and Electrons blog

Now, I hope that you are ready to get your hands "dirty' and play with some cool Cloud applications that might come in handy in your business. I have put together the following list to give you the feeling of what you can get out of the Cloud for FREE. Please don't be afraid and search the web for other applications that suits your needs best (even if it costs a buck or two).

1. Wave accounting - allows managing receipts, bills, expenses, credit lines and more in a simple way

2. Natural HR - human resource management

3. Clearvale - orgarnization social network and team collaboration tools

For more advanced and enterprise oriented solutions, refer to HP, IBM, Cisco and Microsoft.

You will never know what you are missing until you try it yourself!

Please see this post as your canvas to write about more cool cloud-based applications that you have found and inspire others.

Enjoy

NinjaCloud