A day of these employees includes receiving a lot of e-mails – inter departmental coordination, keeping track of pending projects, and scheduling meetings.

As the IT manager of this Los Angeles based company, how would you zero down on an email service that is cost-effective & reliable?

Well, luckily there are options available today. Unlike in the past, when Microsoft Exchange on a windows server was the most popular Business Software available, Google Apps is now in the market as well & plans to be a strong competitor to the Microsoft Office Outlook office suite.

During a recession ( & even after it ), if saving cost is theone of the objective you have, the Google Apps web based solution wins the battle hands down. It costs 1/3 of Microsoft Exchange which is very significant cost saving.

Google Apps requires no Hardware/Software to buy or maintain. On the other hand, the Hardware Software list for Microsoft Exchange is as follows -

• Windows Server®
• Client Access Licenses
• Exchange Server License
• Exchange CALs
• Client app (Office/Outlook)

Google Apps unlike Microsoft Exchange offers a flat annual fee for its most advanced solution.

Emails form a very major part of every business house & reliability is a priority with a lot of IT consultants to ensure minimum data loss. Google Apps guarantees 99.9% uptime & the average downtime per month is less than 15 minutes. Microsoft Exchange, on the other hand, has an average downtime of 2.5 hours per month with its uptime dependent on the companies itself.

With the latest offering of the Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, Google has gone a step further & provided Microsoft Outlook users access multiple Google offerings like Apps, calendar & Contacts through Outlook itself – makes a lot of sense for users who were skeptic about shifting to a new email service provider after using Microsoft Exchange for a long time.

However, as mentioned earlier, a company should evaluate both the options in detail keeping in mind the requirements of the businesses. For many small companies, Google Apps is a sure shot winner – cost – as they say – can make or break things.

Clay Shirky, an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies described Cloud Computing in a single sentence. He said –

“ Thomas J. Watson once mentioned that there would be no need of more than 5 computers in the world. We now know he was wrong. He overstated the number by 4”

Cloud Computing simply is accessing Data, Software Applications as well as the Computer Processing Power from a cloud of online resources – without having to invest in Software, Hardware & Data Management & by renting it from a third party provider.

Cloud Computing is also known as Utility Computing. Like any utility bill is being calculated, Cloud Computing works on a Pay-Per-Use model which is very cost effective for small businesses which need not bother about making huge investments in the IT infrastructure.

Cloud Computing has 3 components –

1.Software as a service (SaaS) – service delivered through a browser. For Example: a CRM

2. Platform as a service (PaaS) – Platform Management. For Example: Google Apps Engine

3. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – From OS access to load balancing. For Example: Flexiscale

Some of the cloud computing providers are –

Sharing the infrastructure & loosing control over it are 2 separate things. Unlike in a cyber café in the earlier days, where there was limited access to users with restrictions on installing a software or downloading some file, Cloud Computing gives enough flexibility for easy Data Storage & Data Management with Separate user rights allocation.

Since Cloud Computing directly results in Cost Saving & Hassel Free Data Management, many experts feel that this is the future of computing & will be widely accepted by the small businesses, to start with.

But some disagree due to the security issues involved. As the data is stored on a remote server hosted by a third party service provider & the user has no direct control on the server, many say Security related issues will make it difficult for companies to adapt to this model.

Provided Scaling-on Demand, Interoperatibility & Efficiency can be achieved with Virtualization in a more Secure & Transparent way, Cloud Computing surely is the Next Big Thing in the world of computers – for both Small Businesses as well as Large Businesses.

Unfortunately, most of the IT support companies that are out there get paid on a per call basis and therefore all that they are interested in is doing some patchwork that ensures that the issue is temporarily solved. In addition to that, the lack of customer service focus makes these professionals (or shall we say unprofessional) even more difficult to bear.

You can get rid of all your network issues, computer downtime, data security IT issues by ensuring that you work with a professional and concerned company like DirectOnsite, INC. The company guarantees a response within 60 minutes when a problem is registered, lightening fast repairs with remote access, technicians who speak your language, complete satisfaction, 100% of projects completed on time and on budget and accurate billing. As a demonstration of our capabilities, we offer a free 27 Point Problem Protection Audit to

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