Setting Up A Cloud Network For Your Home or Business

Setting up a network can be expensive and challenging.  Servers and other equipment and wires must be purchased, and someone with knowledge about the process has to ensure everything is connected appropriately.  Another option, whether in business or a home, you can use the cloud and often spend less than $50 a year for data storage, and maybe a little up front hardware, but compared to servers and other expenses, the cloud network solution is more cost-effective, more convenient, and more practical.

Considerations When Setting Up a Cloud Network

According to Biz Brain, by 2015 more than half of all businesses have set up their own cloud that they can host.  They have done this because by using the cloud they have reduced the cost and the maintenance of the tech infrastructure, often without needing to hire full-time IT staff. When setting up a personal or a small business cloud, there are some determinations that must be made:

• Your internet provider and the upload speed that you need are important.  If you are going to have people out on the road with devices and storing things on the cloud, then upload and download speeds are important.  Just because you have the cloud does not mean that hardware is abandoned altogether.  Some common speeds are 18Mbps download speeds and 2Mbps for upload speeds that can ensure that everyone who needs fast access to information can get it whether they are onsite or not.
• There are different kinds of clouds that people and businesses can choose from.
  1. Public Clouds:   A public cloud is built on an external platform and run by a cloud-service provider.  The provider will offer everything from system resources to the security and maintenance of the cloud for the person or business.  This is excellent option for companies and people who need a variety of services that may change from person to person or situation to situation, as well as cost effectiveness, and a greater likelihood of having the latest technology.  Ensuring these things keeps public clouds in business.
  2. Private Clouds:   A private cloud network is created and built by the individual or small businesses hardware and software.  A private cloud is managed by the person or by the IT team on site.  This means that a small business knows that it has exclusive access to the cloud, as well as flexibility and control.  This is more expensive to create because the individual or organization will be required to build their data centers.
  3. Hybrid clouds:   A hybrid cloud uses both private and public clouds.  A hybrid cloud will see a person or business do its own IT work and management in-house, but the rest of the tech is off-site.  This option might be suitable for someone with sensitive data that shouldn’t be sent to a public cloud so it is stored on site, but also with less sensitive data that can be stored in the cloud without taking up data space.
• How important is safety?  When storing information on the cloud, that data is only as safe as the individual or business requires it to be.  Using encrypted data is one solution to that issue, but it requires an IT consultant or on staff IT professionals.  Data is much safer if it is encrypted, and this process can happen as it enters the cloud, leaves the cloud, or even while it sits in the cloud.  There are also tools that can help monitor data leakage and also ensure that data is secure as it enters and leaves the cloud.

In addition to safety as a service by cloud hosting providers, it is important that support is available from the service. The best service should be available 24 hours a day, every day.  It is also important to ensure that the support is actual technical help, not just scripted support provided by people who do not know how to help and go off-script. Cloud computing can save money on servers, add speed and connectivity from different places, and provide safety from fires and other disasters that can wreck computers.  Taking the time to set things up correctly with appropriate support is an important aspect of cloud computing.