In the first part of this article, I discussed the basic Pros and Cons of cloud computing, now I’d like to talk about the different types of providers, and what they offer.

First you have Application Providers.  Think of this as your telephone provider.  Sure they may run electricity to your house, but it only delivers dial tone.  These are companies that want to deliver a specific solution.  These solutions can be very robust.  Some examples:

1. *Salesforce.com - delivers a contact management solution
   

2. *NetSuite.com - delivers an ERP system
   

3. *Quickbooks.com - delivers a web based accounting application
   

4. *Conexionllc.com/MotionSoft (my old company) - delivers a club management solution
   

It is important to note that the above may incorporate features beyond just those solutions.  For instance, Salesforce now offers a platform where “add-ons” can be written.  How successful will they be, I don’t know.

The other type of provider offers a “platform” as a service.  Think of this as the electric company.  They deliver 120 v service to your house, you plug in your own toaster or TV or bouncy house air pump.  These companies will provide a platform and you simply rent the amount of service you need:

1. *Amazon.com has webservices (aws.amazon.com) where you can rent different configurations by the hour ranging from Linux to Windows Servers with nothing on them to Database Servers.  As an example, a Windows Server will cost around $0.12 per hour or $90 per month.
   

2. *Microsoft has introduced a service where they will rent Windows Servers called Azure (www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/getstarted/).  They charge about the same rate $0.12 per hour.
   

3. *Google offers their “App” platform (www.google.com/apps) for google docs (web equivalents of Office), GMail, Calendars, Sites & Video.  These aren’t as general purpose as Amazon or Microsoft’s offering, but for a small business owner they provide robust basic IT needs at low costs.  You pay $50 per user per year.
   

So how should you use these?  Here’s how I use these services if it helps:

1. 1.I use Google Apps to host my email and that is where I store files.  I will write an article another day on document management, but if you want to share something within your company, you should use an environment to store it.
   

2. 2.I presently use Amazon’s Elastic Compute cloud rather than purchase servers for specific projects.   Truly, I don’t need to have constant access to a Windows server for my business, but when I do, I power it on and only pay per hour.
   

3. 3.I am exploring Azure to see if there are any advantages over Amazon.
   

That’s all for now, but if you are interested in how cloud computing might help you out, send me an email and you will get an unbiased opinion!

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drm