Hosted services – Page 2 – MBM Ltd – IT Support and Cloud Services

mbmadmin
Nov, Thu, 2013

More staff in SMEs use cloud than their employers

More staff in SME businesses are using cloud-based services to carry out their jobs independently of their employers’ IT department.

A survey of 500 SME IT professionals in the US and Europe carried out by Spiceworks found that 50% are doing so now compared to 33% in last year’s study.

File-sharing services are the least common with 24% of respondents having approved cloud-based systems, but 50% of employees are using these through their own volition.

“Web-savvy users have discovered cloud-based file storage, sharing, and synchronisation services to get around IT-owned systems. They’re accessing data, whether corporate or personal, on their own terms. IT departments are not blind to this phenomenon,” said the report.

The survey reported that 30% of companies who participated in the research plan to have a company approved cloud-based file sharing solution in the next six months.

Most staff (93%) who use unapproved cloud file sharing are running Dropbox.

When it comes to approved services, 40% of businesses will include Dropbox in their policy and 24% will include Google Apps.

The most common IT service to run in the cloud with company approval is email. The survey reported that 46% of the SMEs interviewed had approved the use of cloud-based email. This compared to 42% in last year’s study. Another 5% expect to move to a cloud-based service in the next six months.

According to the research, 67% of respondents said the main reason for using a cloud email system was to reduce the burden on IT staff. Just over half (52%) said cost savings was a reason.

Cloud-based productivity suites such as Office 365 and Google Apps were used by 35% of the SME respondents compared to 14% last year. Over half (52%) said they will use these in the next six months.

When it comes to approved apps, 60% of businesses said employees are using Office 365 compared to 59% for Google Apps. But for unapproved usage 78% of businesses said employees are using Google Apps compared to 41% using Office 365.

Are you missing out ? Talk to us at Micro Business Maintenance

mbmadmin
Sep, Mon, 2013

Why you should work in the Cloud

You may have heard about using cloud technology but why should you use it ? – The main advantage is flexibility and cost. A cloud service is pay as you go so you don’t have to make capital investments into your own IT set-up. For example, rather than pay thousands of pounds purchasing the hardware, software and expertise to set up your own Exchange Server you can pay a per user per month fee to purchase it as a cloud service. There is also flexibility to increase and decrease the number of users when required.

There are drawbacks – Sure Cloud computing is an option for your IT but certainly not the be all and end all. Firstly, if you have a cloud service then you are very reliant of your internet connection. If you lose internet connection you lose access to your service. Secondly, cost needs to be closely monitored. You are effectively renting someone else’s IT infrastructure and it isn’t always cheaper in the long run. Make sure you do the maths. We are happy to work with you on that.

In summary – Cloud computing is a welcome addition to the IT landscape. It gives another option with a “pay as you go” payment plan. Its quick to implement, flexible and can lower IT costs but make sure you do your homework We at MBM are happy to help and can put a cost-effective solution in place. Give us a call for a no Obligation chat.

mbmadmin
Feb, Thu, 2013

Online Backup

FLOOD DOESN’T STOP PRINT PRESSES THANKS TO MBM

A local printing company had a shock when their roof caved in following last years heavy downpour that hit the Midlands. But thanks to their IT Disaster Recovery plan with Micro-Business Maintenance, operations were able to continue practically unaffected.

The Four Ashes office of The Lion FPG Ltd suffered when their roof couldn’t cope with the torrential rain that occurred over a very short period of time. Water came through the ceiling affecting their design studio, sales office and parts of their printing factory. Some of their IT equipment such as PCs and printers were damaged with water and wet plaster.

Ian Gillespie, managing director at The Lion FPG Ltd, explained: “It all happened so quickly. One minute we were working away, and the next the ceiling started to come down. We evacuated the design studio and sales office and when we saw the extent of the damage to our IT systems immediately called MBM.”

MBM was on-site in 30 minutes to assess the damage and provide spare IT equipment so the company could carry on working.

The Lion FPG Ltd has three offices across the Midlands and MBM provides them with computer support, a hosted service – allowing staff to access IT systems from anywhere via an internet connection – and IT Disaster Recovery.

Nigel Mills, managing director at MBM, said: “Lion FPG was lucky. They had the right IT support in place to cope with an event like this. But we know there are many businesses,
of all shapes and sizes, who don’t have this back up in place.”