Cloud IT Systems

Cloud Computing and Cloud based IT systems have been a topic in boardrooms and IT Management Team meetings for many years now. For a some the question “what is the cloud?” is easy to answer but many people will answer something along the lines of “it means my stuff isn’t here, it’s up there” while glancing or pointing to the sky.

Of course generally people do appreciate that there simply aren’t any computers, servers or man-made electronics floating in the sky and they do understand when told that the Cloud really consists of a heap of computers in safe houses and bunkers around the world that are linked together via the Internet, after all this makes perfect sense no?

Cloud IT systems bring some real advantages. They enable business to work in flexible collaborative work spaces with colleagues and partners across the globe and offer resilience with low capital expenditure. They do however need to be deployed correctly and security is a major area for attention.

What is alarming is the number of Business Leaders using Cloud based computer systems daily that have no real idea of the business risks in doing so. The single biggest misconception about the Cloud can be summed up by this all too common statement:

“It’s in the Cloud so we don’t need to worry about it” – is this actually true? Absolutely not.

At 777 Networks we have deployed secure Cloud based IT Solutions for many of our clients and are big advocates of it. Some of these systems are 100% Cloud with no on premise infrastructure but many businesses operate IT systems a in ‘Hybrid’ scenario using a combination of cloud based and on-premise IT infrastructure to deliver a best of both worlds’ scenario that is both fully secure and can tolerate failure in a Disaster Scenario.