Could Phil Mickelson survive an IT project?

As the 2013 US Open Golf Championship concluded just over two miles north of my house yesterday, I saw in some battle-tested golfers something I never expected; fear, resignation, and defeat. As the strokes ballooned at Merion East, I could see players shaking their heads wondering how they could turn things around on the unforgiving course.

The most visible player to those of us watching was Phil Mickelson. The veteran lefthander shocked observers when he flew home to San Diego to attend his daughter's eighth grade graduation, forgoing practice rounds, and then forged ahead to capture the lead through the final day. Unfortunately, Phil fell into Merion's clutches at the start of the final round, never fully recovered, and watched instead as British rival Justin Rose clutch the championship. Once again, Phil settled for second best as he had five times before in nearly two dozen attempts at the one title he so dearly wanted.

 

When it comes to determining the best course for SMBs in terms of technology and efficiency, owners and decision makers are all too familiar with the life-or-death stress felt by Phil Mickelson over the past few days in Haverford Township. With the ever-growing reliance of consumers and businesses on cloud technologies, these decisions can be magnified by the uncertainty that comes with not having complete control of the environment. That's why more and more SMBs are moving to their own private cloud infrastructure despite the steeper investments. While it's not as demonic as watching a well-struck golf shot trickle off a tabletop-hard Merion green, it's still enough to cause a deep rumbling in the stomach as those decisions are made and implemented. Engage with a trusted technology partner to gain insight and options for what is best for your organization whether it be a public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid of both. Now close your eyes and envision walking up that 18th green to the roar of tens of thousands of people urging you forward, and remember that your employees will be that gallery who will cheer when efficiency is up and data is secured. Oh, and keep a good thought in your heart for Phil who may never reach that brass ring no matter how many times he tries.

Dropbox Dropout

 

Recently, the popular public cloud storage site Dropbox suffered an outage which marks their second this year. While this outage appeared to be relatively minor, those who were inconvenienced for the hour or so it took to get the site back online probably weren't so jovial. In fact, there were several comments across different forums stating that some users had experienced a loss of personal files in the outage.

If it's true that Dropbox users did in fact suffer from data loss as a result of the outage, this may be another incentive for SMB users to opt for a private cloud solution for file storage. If nothing else, the Dropbox outage starts the conversation for the need to examine where the tolerance for risk is versus the convenience and flexibility of cloud file folders. Again, this is just another argument on the side of investing in your own cloud solution to minimize the risk!

Gimme Shelter

"Oh, a storm is threat'ning
My very life today
If I don't get some shelter
Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away..."

 

I'm reticent to use storm metaphors in the wake of the catastrophic tornado damage in Oklahoma over the last two weeks as well as the series of storms yesterday that took the lives of veteran storm chasers who were trying to gather information to help prevent future victims of such ghastly events. I join with those who've been irreparably affected by the swath of horrible destruction, and I send prayers and hopes for better days to come. In fact, here is a link to donate to the Red Cross relief fund for victims of these horrendous episodes. Oklahoma City Tornado Recovery Fund and Community Emergency Fund. If you would rather donate to the Red Cross general Disaster Relief Fund, here's a link for that. American National Red Cross Disaster Relief.

To address my opening point, one of my musical muses, the Rolling Stones, were trying to make a point in Gimme Shelter that war is devoid of purpose and without victor. I've co-opted the lyrics a bit to introduce this month's blog series around public vs. private cloud configurations for SMB organization. The storm that could threaten your organization could be the incessant drumbeat of hackers looking to cause mayhem, or a disaster of your own that closes your location or worse compromises your critical data. Learn what you can do about it so that your business doesn't fade away.

Do opposites really attract?

The old saying "Politics makes strange bedfellows," uttered by Charles Dudley Warner, who was a turn-of-the-20th-century author and pal of Mark Twain, still rings true today. Major technology news from this week featured something that would seem to fit that quote albeit with a slight revision of the word "politics" to the words "technology rivals."

 

Of course, I'm referencing the announcement that Microsoft and Google (yes, I said Google!) will be working together to build a native app for Google's YouTube on Windows Phone 8. You can read the article Microsoft and Google agree to build YouTube app for Windows 8 by Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet.com to learn more.

 

So what's next? Exxon & British Petroleum collaborating to create an electric car? The casts of "Jersey Shore" & "Jerseylicious" performing Shakespeare? The technology world and consumers alike will watch the results intently as it could be the start of some amazing collaborations in the future.

The Merger of Public Cloud & Private Cloud Working Together

When we talk about mergers in the business world it usually sounds the warning bell for stakeholders and shareholders alike. However in the new world of cloud computing, a merger is the combination of  public and private cloud computing to form a hybrid cloud scheme. A hybrid cloud configuration is particularly beneficial for SMBs with limited resources as it can be designed and maintained by a skilled third-party partner, or it can be just one aspect of your network.

One area seen more frequently in hybrid cloud configurations include backups, business continuity, and disaster recovery. For organizations that have very low tolerance for down time or business interruption can choose to deploy an onsite network backup appliance such as the Barracuda Networks Backup Server. While this may be enough for some entities, there are others that require an additional level of security and will choose to replicate some or all of their data from the onsite appliance to a public cloud backup storage option. Others will want even less exposure to outside forces, and will purchase a second Barracuda box and will host it either at a third-party data center or at a secondary company location. Some SMBs with multiple locations may have smaller backup appliances at each location which replicate to larger higher capacity backup servers at a hub such as the company HQ or again at an offsite data center.

Instead of worrying about mergers and acquisitions in your business, find a cost effective way to embrace a hybrid cloud offering to lessen the burden placed on your staff. Meanwhile, I'm going back to consider other mergers now that my sweet tooth has been activated by staring at the picture above.