For the uninitiated, cloud computing is all about storing all your information on virtual servers and any and all information can be accessed in real time without having to worry about hardware and licensed software (that go into the making of the IT department of a business). Now, so far so good - the problem arises when you type in your passwords to access information on virtual servers; it is during those times that the virtual servers become vulnerable to security threats and this is what they cloud computing community has been struggling to keep up with.It has been sometime since the cloud computing fever has gripped the business community - there are a lot of small and medium-sized businesses that are willing to get empowered by cloud computing and then there are still others who can be considered as fence sitters. Well, you can’t really blame the fence sitters because there are some security issues with cloud computing and engineers across the globe are burning the midnight oil to fix those and security issues.
Apart from the security issues, business owners are also concerned about the whopping prices tags that some services come with. E.g. RackSpace (one of the top players in the cloud computing business) could charge you $1000/month for 2 X Quad X 2Ghz processor and 1000 GB Bandwidth. The price of maintenance, additional space and software could actually push a small sized business to the verge of extinction! And all of that comes backed by sloppy customer support.
Here’s a list of the top three cloud computing service providers that offer better security and best value for money:
- Amazon Web Service - Amazon is one of the oldest companies who have tested waters of cloud computing and despite the recent outage, the company still continues to attract both medium and small sized businesses because of their attractive pay-as-you-go models. This is basically a cloud computing service without bells and whistles and you get to choose the memory and processing power necessary for your operations.
- Windows SkyDrive - This one is quite easily the biggest and most famous of them all. What would you say if you just have to pay six dollars per month to have a dedicated IT department for your business? That sounds too good, doesn’t it? Well, the competitive prices not mean that your data will not be protected by high-tech security systems provided by the expensive varieties. The service is offered by Microsoft and it is one of the few services that offer 25 GB of free cloud storage to all Windows users (Google has recently started offering something along those lines as well). The best part is you don’t need to install Word, Excel,PowerPoint and other Microsoft products on your local computers - you just get to use them without installing them on your local machines.
- ICloud - Just like any other Apple product this product also is focused on not only fulfilling your needs, but pampering and satisfying you. ICloud was launched just a couple of months back, but it has already started receiving the attention, especially from the Apple aficionados across the globe. ICloud allows you to access everything from business documents to music and images stored on their virtual servers. Just like other Apple devices, ICloud is also compatible with most Apple products and if you are a big fan of Apple you don’t need to look any further for cloud computing solutions.
