Zoolz: Innovation In Business Cloud Back Up

December 10, 2012 By Abhishek Prakash 2 Comments

Cloud storage is a topic hot for years now. It just does not seem to be chilling down at all. Cloud computing and Cloud Storage were initially deemed apt only for small enterprises and start-ups. But with time, big and medium size enterprises also jumped in to the Cloud space. And it did not stop there as Cloud has entered the digital life of an individual as well. With free cloud storage for individual users, Dropbox and Ubuntu One have huge number of individual users. Rise of smartphones also gave a new dimension to cloud storage with apps like GCloud providing free cloud storage for backup.

Coming back to Cloud Storage for business, there are several products available in market that provides Cloud storage. When a new product enters the market, it has to provide something new as its USP which is not available with other existing products, for example Spanning provides a better way to back up Google Apps . Based on Amazon AWS, Zoolz is one such cloud storage provider which boasts of ‘Cold Storage‘ technology along with relatively inexpensive pricing.

Unique ‘Cold Storage’ technology:

In an organization, there are several files which are rarely accessed but still they are needed to be stored for future usage. Cold Storage is meant for such kinds of archived files. Why pay the same price for storage which you will be hardly using and thus the bandwidth usage for such files? Cold Storage is available at an unbelievable price of 100 GB for $3 per month. It takes some time in restoring the files, but that could be manageable considering that you don’t need to restore them very often.

Other Salient features of Zoolz:

Comparatively lower price than its competitors.
Secure and reliable with all the data encrypted with 256-AES encryption.
Backups are duplicated and stored over multiple facilities across the globe ensuring on-demand data availability
Image previews for pictures stored.
Private and secure collaboration
Web access to stored files
Continuous and scheduled backups
Powerful user management with different users with different access rights with easy to use interface.
Mobile access with iPhone and Android apps
Zoolz also offers Copy, Encrypt and Ship to handle big data and accelerate the backup process. It claims that Your files will be processed with zero knowledge to their data centers.

Worth Trying?

As an individual user, you may get various free cloud storage providers. Since Zoolz does not have a free version, you might be well off with other cloud services unless you have plenty of data to store safely, for e.g., if you are a photographer. It could have been a good idea to provide a free version of Zulu for at least individual users. In first few tries, Zulu seems more like Box. I could not try it with a large amount of data as I only tried the demo version, but it still seems to be keeping the promises. Small business users can give it a try as the 50 GB hardly costs $10 per month.

How Businesses Are Embracing The Cloud In 2012

October 29, 2012 By Guest Author 1 Comment

Big businesses are looking to cloud computing as a solution for backing up sensitive and private information. Also, many business owners have turned to online backup services to help them to recover from a variety of disasters. Larger businesses depend heavily on their IT systems and cannot afford to have them inaccessible. Besides, with more businesses depending on virtual staff, online file backup provides the flexibility companies need to function efficiently.

Greater flexibility

Business owners who have telecommuting staff members or are operating in a virtual environment often need to have several people accessing documents during any given work cycle. Online backup services allow employees to access documents online regardless of where they are. This type of system allows employees to work collaboratively on projects from nearly any device and from nearly any location.

Saving Money

One of the biggest benefits is that companies can save a significant amount of money. Because of cloud computing, most companies will not have to keep a full-time IT staff onsite.

In years past, companies who lost their system often had to wait hours or days to get a technician to reset their employee computers. The hours of pay without work added up quickly. Today, however, cloud backup allows most companies to reclaim all of the data from their system in a matter of minutes. Additionally, companies who have a telecommuting staff often find that documents stored online are easier to access and allow for more collaboration, increasing the efficiency of those employees.

Security Reasons

Security of data is a major concern for companies of all sizes. Fortunately, cloud computing offers higher security than most internal IT systems. The security of customer data, credit card information and internal forms is critical to long-term business success.

Because these systems allow a “set it and forget it” backup, there is far less concern about losing valuable data. This type of security is invaluable for business owners of all sizes.

For greater capacity

Businesses of all sizes face challenges with having an IT system that allows them to store sufficient amounts of data. One of the best features of cloud computing is the lack of size limitations. Companies can take advantage of cloud computing to ensure that regardless of how unwieldy their system may become, there will be sufficient space without a significant investment in new technology.

Many business owners are often hesitant to use cloud computing without realizing they probably use it more frequently than they know they do. Users of systems like Gmail, Skype and other online technologies are already using cloud computing without necessarily being aware this is part of the “cloud”. Fortunately, more businesses are discovering the many benefits of using cloud computing services.

Some business owners may never understand that cloud computing is vital to their business, all big businesses are embracing the cloud now, especially since they have discovered that there are countless benefits. Saving money on software, allowing collaboration between team members and allowing quick and easy access from anywhere are only a few of the potential benefits. Cloud computing also means that you will never lose valuable time due to a natural disaster that knocks out power, potentially destroying files.

Author Bio: Julio McPartland studied graphic design and wrote for his local paper on the side. He now writes for various technology blogs and forums.

Cutting Edge IT Solutions

October 9, 2012 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

Identifying and implementing new cutting edge IT solutions is a double-edged sword for IT decision makers whose companies are trying hard to excel. If they take a chance on a new technology that ends up failing, they could be held responsible for any or all of the problems it caused. On the other hand, if they miss an opportunity to become an early adaptor on a game-changing technology, they put their company at a competitive risk.

Decisions, decisions

Historically speaking, chief IT officers have been able to avoid getting fired by simply keeping a company’s systems running. This isn’t really enough anymore, and CIOs can be too timid about deploying new technology and looking into different solutions. If a competitor takes the plunge and gains a strategic advantage, you may have to answer some very difficult questions.

IT solutions picking up traction

Data center virtualization and various cloud computing solutions are some of those technologies that began life with questionable benefits are now being integrated into a wide range of industries.

Server virtualization, for example, is an effective way for a company to deploy the necessary services without installing the normal physical hardware. The necessary applications, though, will still run as if they were really hosted on a traditional machine. The benefits of switching from physical to virtual systems weren’t immediately accepted, but then companies began to realize exactly how much money they were wasting on physical servers that were rarely utilized to their full capacity. Creating multiple servers on the same host allows companies to save a lot of money and work more efficiently and there has been a large migration toward this technology.

Cloud technology, on the other hand, represents another cutting edge solution that many IT professionals are embracing with enthusiasm. The cloud can connect users to a range of applications from any location. There are options for cloud storage that let companies back up important data, but it also allows employees to take advantage of higher processing power instead of relying on the limitations of the software deployed locally on a computer’s hard drive.

Currently, there are several innovative commercial software applications being deployed on cloud platforms. The cloud presents a better, faster, and cheaper method of software deployment and data storage than many traditional solutions. Of course, as more and more companies take their processes to the cloud, security and management are going to become even bigger issues. Companies need to know that the things they store off site will be safe but still immediately accessible. As these applications continue to develop, cloud computing will simply become the default productivity method.

Staying on top of emerging technologies

With new cutting edge technologies being developed and deployed in a wide range of industries and organizations there will also be a need to develop effective methods for staying informed about upcoming offerings. The IT department is going to face a lot of decisions about new and emerging technologies, and they will need to have a lot of information before they can make a final choice.

While it can seem like a full-time job just to keep up with the new IT solutions on the market and how they could be employed within a company, it is still important to make every effort to stay on top of recent developments. As new things are discovered, and new processes proposed, try to look at it from every angle to determine whether or not it will really be beneficial to your company.

You may be hesitant when these new technologies hit the market, but you can’t afford to wait too long. Take the time to weigh all of your options and discuss the new technology with others in the department. If you feel there is a measurable benefit to adopting the technology, make the decision quickly and commit to seeing it through to the end.

Author Bio: Brian Jensen works with Dell. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, cooking and spending time with his family. He has a passion for learning and writing about all things technology. He is currently researching IT solutions and would recommend visiting dell.com for more information.

Cloud Computing: A Comparison of Apple, Chromium and Windows 8

July 4, 2012 By Guest Author Leave a Comment

Cloud computing is becoming a more important part of the IT world, although unless you understand how it is being implemented you may not realise that you are using it at all. Here is a look at how Apple, Google and Microsoft are harnessing the cloud in current and future projects.

iCloud:

Apple launched its first cloud computing service in 2011, sensibly calling it iCloud in order to fit in with other devices it produces, like the iPhone and iPad. iCloud is largely focused on keeping your media files accessible across multiple devices by storing them remotely and synchronising them seamlessly. The idea is that you can purchase a music track or eBook via your iTunes account on your PC and when you pick up your iPhone or iPad it will already have been added to your collection. This eliminates the annoying process of wired synchronisation from the equation, because the files are stored neatly on the cloud and passed on to each device that needs them.

Media files are not the only thing you can synchronise with iCloud, as you typically get a 5GB allocation of storage space and you can transfer across contacts, bookmarks, calendar settings and even email direct to your Apple devices from a Mac or even a Windows-based computer. You will need to activate iCloud on all of your devices in order to get each one talking to the service, but this, like many of Apple’s software processes, is relatively simple.

Chrome:

Google Chrome is a web browser based on the open source Chromium source code and has been around in various forms since 2008. There is also the Chrome OS from Google, which is based on Linux and operates almost entirely via applications which run over the web, powered by cloud computing.

Both Chrome and the Chrome OS are unlike traditional web browsers and operating systems because they rely less on the resources which are available from local hardware and are instead based on having high speed web access to make features and functions operate smoothly. The result is that there is less strain put on your computer and the overall experience is one which feels faster and slicker than some rivals, simply because the back end of the number crunching is being handled in the cloud.

on internet providers in your area so that you can work out which package to choose in order to support the fast connectivity that will allow Chrome to flourish.

Windows 8

Windows 8 is the next operating system from Microsoft and it will be targeted not only at desktop and laptop computers but also at the tablet market, which is an area in which Apple has become dominant since the 2010 launch of the iPad. Microsoft has enacted a number of features for Windows 8 which will make it more reliant on cloud computing, following in the footsteps of Chrome to a certain degree although still retaining more independence than Google’s web-centric software.

For example, Windows 8 will have native support for HTML5 and Javascript applications. This means that you will be able to run web-based software within the operating system itself, independent of the web browser. The benefit of this is that companies will be able to produce smartphone and tablet-style apps for their services which will be free from the shackles of a web browser and thus able to take full advantage of all the processing grunt of a Windows 8 machine.

Social networking giant Facebook was one of the first to announce its intentions to build a Windows 8 application that takes advantage of this setup, so expect many more to follow once it is available to the general public.

Cloud Adoption:

Tech companies are making it easier and easier to start using cloud computing platforms, although it is necessary that users have decent internet connections to take full advantage of what is on offer. Those in areas of limited coverage could be left behind. Chances are that you have been using some kind of cloud computing service without actually knowing it. So educating yourself on the topic will help you to make the most out of the emerging platforms.

About the Author:

The above article is written and edited by Roxie, who is a freelance writer for various blogs and communities related to technology. In her free time she writes articles related to Windows 8 info and Microsoft Office 2010 or anything that is related to them.

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