Is Google Apps for Business Right For Your Company?

“How can I use cloud computing in my business?” is probably the number one IT question that I get asked. It can be a hard  question to answer because the cloud isn’t just one technology, and it all depends on what you need from your IT. Very often, small businesses owners simply want to store files in the cloud and share them with colleagues and clients, and I increasingly find myself suggesting to people that they should at least look at Google Apps for Business.

Google Apps for Business is the cloud equivalent of the Swiss Army knife.  It has a number of components:

Google Mail

Most people know about Google Mail, but many people aren’t aware of Google Apps for Business which works pretty much the same as the personal version of Google Mail, but you use your own domain (e.g. clearview.co.uk) instead of the Google domain of gmail.com.  You can also personalise the system with your company logo (see below).

Google Calendar

Google Apps provides a  calendar to help you organise your time. You can share your calendar with your colleagues and vice versa. In addition to scheduling meetings, Google’s “Tasks” component allows you to create a “To-Do” list which I keep on the right hand side of my screen. It’s no substitute for a CRM system, but it helps me to organise my activity for the day.

Even if all you got was email and calendar, surely Google Apps for Business has to be the cloud’s biggest bargain at £3.30 per user per month for businesses, and absolutely free for non-profit organisations. What’s more, if you have grown attached to using Microsoft Outlook as your email and calendar software, there’s no need to change. You can configure Google Apps to synchronise all of your email and calendar entries with your Outlook client.

But that’s not all! You can also use Google Apps for Business to store documents online and synchronise them with a folder on your laptop / desktop PC using Google Drive.

Google Drive

Google Drive allows you to store and share your files online and integrates neatly with Google Mail. There are two ways to access your Google Drive Files. Firstly, you can download and install an install programme from your Google account which creates a synchronisation folder on your laptop or PC. You can then drag and drop files and folders into your Google Drive folder and synchronise them with your Google Account.

  

Secondly, you can upload files to Google Drive using a web browser. This is a simple “point and click” operation that allows you to upload files to your Google account from any internet connected device.

Once a file or folder has been uploaded to your Google Drive account, you can share it using a right mouse click and clicking on the “Share” menu option. Files and folders can be shared with colleagues in your own organisation as well as with clients and business partners. You get the option to send an email to the person that you have shared the file or folder with.

Word Processing and Spreadsheets for Free!

In addition to email, calendar, file sharing and collaboration, Google Apps also provides you with a basic word processor, spreadsheet and drawing application at no extra cost. They aren’t as sophisticated as the Microsoft applications, or even Open Source suites such as LibreOffice, but if you only need basic word processing and spreadsheet functions, they do the job. I tend to compose everything in my favourite Office suite and just use Google for storage and collaboration. 

Great Value Cloud Computing For Small Businesses

Having moved over from Microsoft Exchange about 18 months ago, I'm a big advocate of Google Apps for Business. It's great value for money and there are ways that you can overlay automatic encryption to ensure data privacy. If you are a start-up and looking for a low cost way to store / back up data files in the cloud, as well as share files with your colleagues and clients, it's hard to fault.

Five Ways That Cloud Storage and Collaboration Is Good For Business.

Wouldn’t it make life so much easier for your business if your staff could use the cloud to collaborate on project documents within their teams as well as with business partners and clients? What about using the cloud to back up information on your company laptops and tablet computers so that you never need to worry about loss of data due to a hard disk failure or malware attack again? But can you trust public cloud services with your company data?

In truth, unless you need to store highly confidential or personal information, it's not difficult to set up secure online data storage for your employees as and when you need it. Where confidential information needs to be stored online, low cost encryption software can be used to secure files that you upload to protect information from prying eyes in the unlikely event that your account is compromised.

Today’s online storage and data sharing services also make it extremely easy for your employees, partners and customers to share files online. The reputation of organisations such as Google, Trend Micro and Accellion stands or falls on their ability to protect your data, so as you would expect they have made a significant investment in both technology and specialist staff to ensure that every reasonable precaution is taken to protect your confidential information.

Cloud based data sharing between project teams helps to increase the productivity of your staff. New versions of documents generated as part of a project are automatically updated on all relevant devices using data synchronisation. This significantly improves collaboration between distributed teams since everyone can be sure that they always have the latest copies of project documentation and drawings to hand. 

Setting up data synchronisation between your PC and the cloud is a simple operation. You simply download the software which sets up a synchronisation folder on your PC / device. You can create subfolders which will allow you to group items together (e.g. for different projects), and from then on the whole process of synchronising changes to the cloud and your other devices (e.g. your iPad) can be automated. The automatic synchronisation process runs silently in the background and requires no investment in hardware or training.

How safe is my data?

Cloud based storage encrypts all files stored in the cloud in secure data centres. Backup routines will also be used to ensure that your data is safe in the event of equipment failure and can be recovered quickly in the event of a technical or human error. The weakest link in the security chain is therefore the password that you use to access your account. To address this threat, two factor authentication can be used in conjunction with services such as Google Apps for Business.

Five key benefits of cloud data storage:

1. Simple File Sharing: Online file sharing services allow you to access your files from any device. For example, you may create a document on a work PC, but may also need to access it from home PC or on your iPad / Android tablet when you are on a client’s premises. With a few clicks you can also share any of your files with your clients.
2. Access anywhere: Your data is always accessible to authorised users at any time and via any internet connected device (including smartphones and tablets).
3. Safe storage: Data is automatically backed up to secure online storage. Robust security is provided to secure your confidential data, including encrypted transmission and malware scanning.
4. Synchronisation of all devices: As you update your information, it is automatically synchronised across all authorised devices, including PC and MAC clients as well as IOS and Android tablets and smartphones.
5. Efficient management: It is simple to create new user accounts from a central management console. In addition, you can allow users to create their own personal areas to manage their data.

For startup and small companies, it is entirely possible to use cloud storage instead of incurring the expense of installing your own file server. It allows you to store, synchronise, and secure your files online in a single location and share these files with colleagues and business partners at the click of a mouse button.

If you would like to know whether online collaboration services such as Trend Micro SafeSync for Business or Google Apps for Business would meet your needs for online data storage and collaboration, please call us on 01707 255060, or email us at info@clearview.co.uk. 

Online Storage - Taking Your First Steps Into The Cloud

In 5 years, Dropbox, the online file storage company has grown to a user base of 50 million users worldwide. That’s great news for their founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, but why is the technology so popular, and how can it help small businesses? Also, let's not forget that the online world carries some risk. Is it safe to use online storage, and what security precautions should be taken to protect your data in the cloud?

Why Is Online Storage So Popular?

Online file storage is cheap (free in some cases), simple to use, and incredibly convenient if you need to access files both in the office and at home. It allows you to access your files from your work PC, your home PC, as well as from any tablet device or Smartphone. It also overcomes the attachment size limitations of email by allowing you to upload the file to your online storage and create a link to the file that you can then email to the intended recipient. They then simply click on the link and download the file via a  web browser. 

Synchronising Data To The Cloud From Your PC

Most online storage services allow you to create a synchronisation folder on your Windows PC's into which you can "drag an drop" files that you want to upload to your cloud storage. This saves you having to log in to your cloud storage every time you want to upload a file, and also keeps your online files and folders in sync.

Integration With Tablets And Smartphones

My initial reason for using online storage was to allow me to access client documentation on my iPad. Apps are available for Smartphones and tablets (Android and Apple iOS) that allow you to access files that have been uploaded to your cloud storage. You will also find that some third party Office Apps available for Android and iOS plug straight in to online storage such as Google Drive which allow you to edit documents stored online. This is in fact my favourite feature of cloud storage, and I use it regularly to write blog posts at home while watching television (How much attention can you really give to Masterchef?). 

There is also an additional feature in Trend Micro SafeSync For Business which is worth mentioning, in its ability to allow you to view Microsoft Office and Adobe Acrobat documents on Android and iOS devices without running a Microsoft Office editor / Adobe Reader. I use this capability most on my Smartphone to access price lists as well as product documentation that I store online for reference while I am out of the office. It saves having to wait until I get back to the office to check out specific questions that people ask from time to time.

Data Backup

One of the obvious applications for online data storage is for online backup. Over the years, tape backup has proven to be unreliable, and no amount of onsite backup provisions can protect you against fire / flood. We strongly recommend that all companies should implement online backup for their data, since it provides the only reliable way of making sure that you can recover your data when you most need to.

Data Security 

As with all things cloud, data security is a consideration. Companies such as Trend Micro and Google have a pretty good handle on data security, but the weak point if there is one will always be a reliance on passwords. For general use, I would suggest that you simply use strong passwords including letters, numbers and at least one special character. It sounds complicated, but once you have worked out a system it's fairly simple to work with. Alternatively, if you need to make sure that it is only your employees who are able to access your data online, then I would recommend using Google Apps since Google allows you to authenticate access to the system using "one-time-passwords" (i.e. they change every time you log in) generated on your employees' Smartphones. This capability is provided by Safenet's Cloud Authentication Service, so you don't have to install security software on your network to keep your cloud storage secure

The US Patriot Act

If you are going to be using a provider of online storage who uses a US datacentre, you also need to take the US Patriot Act into consideration. Under the US Patriot Act, the CIA can demand to see your data if it is kept in a US datacentre. If you have concerns about this, then use a service that uses European Data Centres.  

Clearview Data Systems provide IT Service / Support and cloud computing services to Hertfordshire and the surrounding area. If you need advice on storing your data in the cloud, please call us on 01707 255060 or send an email to info@clearview.co.uk.