This a guest post from David Ross of Jarrett & Lam Consulting about the subject of cloud computing. I thought the timing was rather good ahead of our technology event next week.
Like in many other business sectors, The Cloud has become a popular talking point in recruitment. While Cloud computing has actually been around for a while, modern technology and developments in software design mean it has become far more mainstream and accessible in recent years. Like many buzz words, you do not need to look far to find people talking about the wonderful benefits the cloud could bring to your business. But before you make a choice it is important to evaluate both sides and unfortunately information about the drawbacks is not always as easy to find.
What Is The Cloud?
In short, The Cloud is the internet. When someone describes a bit of software as being hosted in The Cloud they basically mean it is a shared resource which is accessed via the internet.
Most people think of software as being something you install on a PC but it can also come in the form of a website. A good example of the two types of software can be seen if you look at Google Docs, the search giant’s web based alternative to the Microsoft’s Office suite.
Now just because a piece of software is not web based this does not mean it cannot be hosted in the cloud. Hosted desktop services allow you to run whole PCs from the cloud with the same operating systems and software packages you will be used to on your own computer. Many PC based recruitment software providers (including us) use hosted desktops for those clients who need a remotely hosted solution.
Remote Working
One of the most talked about benefits is not actually one of the biggest features of hosting software in The Cloud: the ability to work remotely. Hosting your software in The Cloud does indeed facilitate remote working, but there are actually plenty of ways to achieve this with more traditional office networks.
The simplest way to achieve remote working is to use remote access. Take a normal office network with a server and an office computer for each consultant, provided that the office computers are on and connected to the Internet they can be controlled remotely. Providing your staff with a reasonable low spec laptop and some remote access software and they will be able to work just as effectively as if they were in the office, from anywhere with an Internet connection. This may appear expensive at first but when you consider that a £300 laptop should last a good 3 to 5 years it may work out to be much cheaper (not to mention easier) than moving everything into the cloud.
IT As A Service
The biggest benefit of hosting software in The Cloud is that someone else is responsible for maintaining it. This can be a bit of a double edged sword and is usually a key consideration recruiters have to think about. To really take advantage of this you would probably want to use hosted desktops and have one supplier managing everything. The average price for a hosted desktop starts at about £50 per user per month and the service provider is then responsible for maintaining everything for you.
The downside to having someone else providing and maintaining your hosted systems is that you then become very reliant on that provider, they will have access to all your data, they will be able to disable you access at any point and should the relationship start to turn sour you could find yourself in a very difficult position.
How good is Your Internet Connection?
The last big consideration is your internet connection. If your internet connection goes down you would be cut off from any systems you have hosted in the cloud. As a general rule we would recommend those reliant on cloud based systems of any kind have a backup connection from a different broadband supplier.
You also need to think about the pressure having all you staff using hosted systems has on your internet connection. You only have so much bandwidth and once you reach its limit its performance will start to drop. Now you may not notice when surfing the web if a web page takes half a second more to load, but if you are using web based software heavily, then the drop in performance can be quite dramatic.
Controlling a computer remotely, such as remote accessing a PC or a virtual machine via hosted desktop will put less pressure on your internet connection than transferring files to a from a web based system. When controlling a desktop remotely your internet connection is just being used to send your key press and mouse movements and receive how the display looks rather than the raw data. Obviously the extent of the difference depends on the web based software you are comparing.
How to know what’s Right for You
It has to be said the hosting some or all of your systems in the cloud has some significant advantages but it is not right for everyone.
The main things to think about are:
• Is your internet connection up to the challenge in terms of both speed and capacity?
• How much requirement is there for working remotely?
• Are you happy being reliant on a third party for your systems and information?
• Are you happy maintaining your own IT infrastructure, either yourself or with the help of an IT company?
• How is any solution going to impact/integrate with your existing setup?
• Do you often need to use different machines (e.g. Office PC and home PC)
• Does your staff base often expand and contract fairly dramatically dependant on how busy you are?
The answers to these questions should start to point you in the direction of the best way to setup your IT.
