VWF Technology's
mission is to bring clarity to cloud services for small businesses. Our
full suite of services are geared to help small businesses understand how they
can leverage cloud-based (i.e. off-premises) solutions to augment or replace
their current applications and systems.
Cloud-based
products bring a myriad of new opportunities to improve the ways you operate
your business, protect your data and collaborate (internally and with
customers).
They can:
- obviate
(or reduce) the need for traditional server/computer rooms
- reduce
your need to invest in hardware – and eliminate the need to stay ahead of the
obsolescence cycle
- allow
your staff to focus on work that truly adds value to your business (instead of
spending time managing commodity applications and systems)
- ease
integration of mobile devices into your work processes (smartphones and
tablets)
- give
you better control of your valuable data assets
- improve
the way you share information and interact/collaborate – both within your
organization and with your customers
VWF Technology
is uniquely qualified to help your small business make the right decisions on
technology-related investments. Our years of experience with organizations of
varying size, industry and complexity combined with our broad knowledge of the
technology that is important to your business give us the perspective needed to
become one of your trusted partners.
VWF Technology
will work with you to accomplish the following:
- identify your business requirements
- assess how your current information
technology is meeting your needs
- find the best solutions for your
business
- lead you through the implementation,
management and support of both cloud and on-premises solutions.
Consider This
Here are some use
cases where we’d encourage an evaluation of cloud-based solutions:
- You’re using Microsoft Exchange on a
server that you own and manage. You should consider alternatives like a hosted
Microsoft Exchange service or Google’s GMail. Both options will eliminate your
need to manage the system and periodically upgrade the server to avoid hardware
obsolescence.
- You have a file server that allows you
to share files among your employees. You should consider a cloud-based file
sharing service like Google Drive, DropBox for Business. These solutions make
it easier for your employees to access files from mobile devices and when
they’re not connected to your network.
- You use e-mail to share documents and
collaborate with your customers. These are other good use cases for cloud-based
file sharing services. They can give you better control over who can access
files and insure that people are accessing the latest version of shared files.
- You are using tape to back-up your
servers or workstations. You should consider a cloud-based data protection
service. They’re often more flexible (than tape), easier to use (i.e. for
restoration) and can be tailored to meet your backup and data retention
requirements.
- Your organization uses Microsoft Office
but has multiple versions installed (i.e. 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013). Productivity
apps are moving to the cloud. You should consider Office 365 or alternatives
like Google Apps or Apple’s upcoming iWork for iCloud.
- Your e-mail is hosted at your Internet
service provider (ISP). If you are limited to simple POP3 or IMAP access to
your e-mail and can’t effectively share calendars within your organization you
could consider a cloud-based solution like hosted Microsoft Exchange or
Google’s GMail that includes shared calendars and other collaboration-enhancing
features.
Let us help you
see if any of these use cases apply to your organization and determine if any
cloud-based solutions would be appropriate.
Be mindful of dark
clouds
We don’t view cloud-based services as a panacea. There are a
variety of solutions that are available and you need to make sure that the
one’s you choose fulfill your requirements.
Here are some points to consider:
- Your
employees may already be using free and/or personal ‘flavors’ of cloud
services. If this is the case, they control the data they’re storing
(and sharing) on these services – you don’t.
- Don’t risk losing control of information
that it vital to your business by allowing your employees to make their own
‘cloudware’ choices. Products like Evernote, DropBox, Google Drive and a vast
array of others are excellent productivity and collaboration tools.
However, if you allow your employees to use the free/personal licenses for
these applications you’ve lost control of your data.
- The
wide availability of these off-premises ‘cloud’ services - for things as simple
as storage and e-mail to specific line of business applications for your
business - makes choosing the right services a challenge. Also, though many
services are available for free, you need to be mindful that no- or low-cost
solutions are often geared for the home/consumer market and not small
businesses.
- You
also need to be careful to avoid the temptation to use several free services as
you’ll find it difficult to manage your critical business data when it is
spread across a medley of storage service solutions. In addition, if you allow
your employees to freely use the cloud services of their choosing you risk
losing access to data/documents they’ve created if they leave your company.
Our Premise
Adopting cloud-based (off premises) services can:
- improve
your business agility (and scalability)
- reduce
risk (through data protection)
- give
you better control of your data assets
- lower
your information technology expenses
Our
service portfolio is
designed to help you realize some or all of these objectives.