Business Computer Backup: How To Backup Your Computer To The Cloud

business computer backup how to backup your computer to the cloud
Cloud Backup

Cloud backups are the easiest form of backup to set up and maintain, and most services allow access to your files from various platforms.  And learning about business computer backup is very important.

To backup your files, create an account, download software, and input your account information. After this process, every time your computer goes online, the software will automatically back up your files.

Do not confuse online backup services with cloud storage and syncing services like Dropbox and Google Drive. These services save your files in the cloud–mostly for collaboration and editing–but they do not store all system files.

Cloud backups encrypt your files so no one has access to them and copies them to a number of drives on various computers. If one of these computers losses data, your information is available in another server.

After uploading your information, the client does not have to worry about uploading their material again.

A downside of cloud backup is that the initial uploading can take a few weeks or months, but this will depend on the amount of data that a company wishes to upload and the speed of their Internet connection.

Most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) focus more on download speeds than upload speeds. A good idea is to temporarily update to a plan with more “upload bandwidth” during your initial backup.

Another potential problem with the use of cloud backup services is if you lose your physical backups and need access to all of your files. In that situation you would be limited by the speed with which you could download information from your cloud service.

Resolving these problems depends on working closely with your ISPs. If you would like to learn more about cloud backup contact us.

What’s The Key To Cloud Migration Success? Flexibility!

what the key to cloud migration success flexibility

Cloud computing has exploded in popularity, with an increasing number of businesses turning to the cloud to meet their IT infrastructure needs. And the key to cloud migration is flexibility!

When selected wisely, cloud services are cost-effective and reliable. They increase your ability to work productively and take on more complex tasks and larger stores of data. They can also help your business become more resilient to IT disasters.

Making a good choice in cloud services, however, will work well for you only if you migrate successfully to the new platform.

key to cloud migration

What’s the Primary Key to Cloud Migration Success?

Flexibility is one of the most important qualities in cloud migration. The following are some examples:

  • Modifying plans when necessary. For example, let’s say your business comes up with a plan to migrate a certain number of applications to the cloud. You find on testing them that some of the applications won’t be sufficiently supported and will experience problems functioning. Are you flexible enough to change your plans – maybe choosing another cloud-based solution or refraining for the time being from migrating the subset of problematic applications?
  • Devising both strategic plans and last-minute quick solutions. Migrating to the cloud requires strategic planning and careful thought in advance. It also demand thinking on your feet. When problems come up during cloud migration, you need to quickly come up with alternatives, working as a team to brainstorm, think creatively, and implement solutions.
  • Migrating readily between platforms. A recent article from InfoWorld mentions how hybrid cloud solutions are often popular because they give businesses flexibility in combining both cloud-based and on-premises solutions for different components of their IT infrastructure. The article also emphasizes how businesses often like to migrate between cloud platforms “seamlessly,” depending on their needs. Cloud migration isn’t a one-time process; it’s something you should always be prepared to do to best work towards your business objectives.

Flexible cloud migration is essential for your business’s success. Please contact us for advice and for assistance with migrating to the cloud.

Cloud Computing for Business: The Many Benefits of Using Cloud Servers

cloud computing for business the many benefits of using cloud servers

A cloud server refers to a virtual server that runs on a cloud computing environment. This explains why cloud servers are commonly called virtual dedicated servers (VDS). Undoubtedly, there is plenty of buzz about cloud computing for business. If you’re interested in using cloud servers, here is some information about the benefits.

cloud computing for business

Cloud Computing for Business

One of the main advantages of using cloud servers is that you are free to modify the server software to suit your needs. In fact, you can even modify the operating system kernel, which is not possible with many other virtualization solutions.

Cloud servers tend to be more secure and stable. If you encounter a software problem, it will likely be isolated to the cloud computing environment. You won’t be harmed by the cloud servers of other people. The opposite is also true. Cloud servers also possess the best stability to cost ratio.

You will find that cloud servers are economically efficient. You will spend less on cloud servers and receive more resources and speedier performance. Essentially, your site will run faster if you have a cloud server rather than a traditional server at a comparative price.

Another advantage of cloud servers is that they scale quite well. This makes cloud servers especially beneficial for individuals who have needs that increase or decrease significantly from time to time. If you need to upgrade the disk space, CPU, or memory of your cloud server, it will be easy and affordable to do so.

Undoubtedly, there are many benefits of using cloud servers. For more information about the benefits of using cloud servers, don’t hesitate to contact us.

The Hype About Cloud Hosting

the hype about cloud hosting

“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”

Robert Kennedy

Let’s face it. Change can be hard. This is especially true when entire industries have to go through growing pains. Think about how frustrating it was when the home video industry changed up on Blockbuster. They had a nice, cozy place as a household name throughout America and several other countries. Then, wham!

This is the way a lot of companies that focus only on dedicated hosting are likely feeling today. Yet, for many businesses, dedicated hosting still does have a place. Every dedicated hosting customer isn’t going to cancel. However, for many business models, switching to the cloud just makes more sense.

Because of natural competition, many professionals with biased interests haven’t done much to clear up confusion over the security that cloud hosting platforms can offer businesses, especially SMB’s.

The popular discourse can have you imagining all sorts of cloud vulnerabilities, yet truthfully, nothing leaves you more vulnerable than having only one server. In addition, the top corporations of the world (like Google), rely entirely on multiple cloud hosted servers.

The Numbers

Simply put, cloud hosting puts the resources of several servers at your disposal. This is financially impossible for most companies that rely on dedicated servers. Hence, these companies typically have just 1 or 2 servers. Should your website experience a DDoS attack for example, bandwidth issues and other problems your competitors will experience won’t be a concern for you.

With cloud hosting, you can also pay for what you need. If your business grows, you pay for more resources. Dedicated servers cost much more money to set up. You also have to maintain them and update them yourself. For many businesses that means hiring staff and buying new hardware and software every year.

Though these are tax write-offs, it’s important to determine if dedicated servers are affordable and practical in the long run. Alternately, some businesses share servers with other businesses to cut dedicated server costs down to cloud hosting costs. However, this diminishes reliability and redundancy. Shared VPS typically isn’t the best solution.

Contact us today at 4 Corner IT to learn more about cloud hosting. Let us get your business running smoothly in just a few days.

Choosing Cloud Services: Are You Ready To Make The Right Decisions?

choosing cloud services are you ready to make the right decisions

An increasing number of businesses rely on cloud services for at least some of their computing needs. The Motley Fool recently compiled a thought-provoking list of cloud computing stats – among them an estimate that by 2019, we’ll see over twice as much spending on public cloud services than we did in 2015. Are you choosing cloud services for your business?

Choosing Cloud Services

Given the plethora of services, one of the challenges you face is figuring out what cloud computing solutions work best for you and how to optimize them for your company. Another statistic from The Motley Fool article is a survey showing that 32% of respondents didn’t think their IT departments could deal with the increasing amount of work based in the cloud.

Choosing Cloud Services

We can help give you the confidence to make the right cloud computing decisions and work with the most helpful services to reach your business goals.

Finding Guidance for Cloud Computing Decisions

What are some of the considerations to make when deciding on cloud services for your company?

  • Choosing between public and private cloud options, and deciding on whether you’re best served with hybrid solutions that combine data stored in the cloud with data kept on local devices in on-site storage.
  • Figuring out which services are cost-effective for you, giving you a strong return on investment through enhanced productivity, greater efficiency, and a reduction in unnecessary spending (such as the purchase of a server you don’t need).
  • Choosing cloud computing solutions that offer both reliability and security. You want to ensure that your sensitive data is under powerful protection when it’s stored, under use, and transmitted. You also want to rely on thorough, easily retrieval data backups in case of an IT disaster; permanent data loss or lengthy downtime can destroy your business.

For more information about high-quality cloud services, please contact us. We have the experience and training to suggest and implement solutions that are best suited for your particular needs.