By: Dan Bremner
The other day I heard a description of cloud computing that I liked, "We have all these super powers we never had before." Okay, they might not be quite as Amazing as the super powers Peter Parker got from a radioactive spider bite, or Bruce Banner's gamma radiation-induced muscle building regimen, but there is still some pretty cool stuff you can do. So today, I thought I'd talk about examples of things you can do with your cloud super powers, specifically Office 365 in this case.
Work on a document or spreadsheet with other people.
Have you ever emailed a file to several other people, asked for their input or updates, and then had to take the files they sent back to you and merge them back together into the original? Wouldn't it be way better to send an invitation, have everyone able to update the same file at the same time, and see each other's edits as they are made? Even better, what if you could do that same thing with people both in your organization and outside of it? With your Word documents and Excel spreadsheets stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Office 365, you can do exactly that. You and your collaborators can make updates in either the web-browser versions of Word and Excel or the installed versions of those programs.
Access all your work files from wherever you are.
It used to be that to get to your work documents, your IT department needed to set up a VPN or remote solution such as Remote Desktop/Citrix/Terminal Server. Then you needed to set up a VPN client, a Citrix/Remote client, or both, on your computer, and go through some connection process to gain access. The reality of cloud computing is that you can fire up Word on your PC at work, on your MacBook at home, on your tablet at a customer site, or on your smart phone during your commute home, and your files are right there waiting for you, ready to pick up where you or your colleagues left off. Files aren't locked in your server in your office, and that creates flexibility for you and your employees.
Protect your files from unauthorized use, no matter where they end up.
This one is huge, and it's something I haven't seen too many people talking about. Every company faces the risk of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands, whether from carelessness or malice. Imagine company secrets, or sensitive customer or employee data getting emailed out, or downloaded to a USB thumb drive. If the email or drive fell into the wrong hands, or if it was taken by a terminated employee on their way out the door, wouldn't it be comforting to know the files couldn't be opened without proper authorization? That sort of protection is possible with Azure Rights Management, an Office 365 feature that's part of the Enterprise plans. This feature also allows you to send encrypted email right from within Outlook.
Simplify growth.
Predicting the future isn't easy. In the old model, when you're buying servers to handle your email and file storage, you need to make sure you have enough expansion room to handle future growth. That might mean buying more than you need right now. Likewise, if business conditions force you to reduce staff, you can't get any refunds for those software licenses you bought but aren't using any longer. But in the cloud computing model, you only pay as you go for what you use, and you can triple your headcount overnight without any worry about whether the server can handle it. If you scale down, you only need pay for the active users.
Simplify licensing and version updates.
When software is expensive, it's natural to want to spread out purchases and not upgrade until it becomes too painful to avoid. Especially in many small businesses, there was often a multitude of different Office versions, including some that were 3 or 4 versions old. This sometimes meant file incompatibilities between different people in the same company, and users trying to help each other only to find out a feature isn't available on their coworker's version. It also sometimes led to illegal use of the same software copy on multiple computers, exposing the company to fines. Office 365 licensing keeps everyone on the latest version at a lower monthly cost, and it allows each employee to install the software on up to 5 computers and 5 mobile devices for their personal use, including work and home PCs, Macs, phones, and tablets.
These are just a few of the super powers that the Cloud can give to your business. They may not make you grow into a Hulk-sized version of yourself, but they can be a big help to your growing company. (Besides, I have it on good authority that gamma radiation is far more likely to kill you than give you super powers. Bummer.) If you'd like more information on these or other cloud super powers, please drop me a line or give me a call.