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Is everything going to change in 2024? No! It is an evolution. Not a revolution.
As 2023 becomes 2024 – We will really get into a bit more than planned for this iteration of the newsletter, which was originally going to be ‘Onsite vs. Cloud vs. Hybrid’.
As 2023 ends, all of us have seen many changes in our businesses and the way we operate, whether a result of ‘pandemic-era’ restrictions / adjustments / improvements or things that you might have considered and done anyway.
Many of us have New Year’s resolutions or changes, cutbacks and additions that are considered at the end of one year or the beginning of the next. I believe that we should really be considering such things throughout the year, but this can be hard to do while attempting to run the day-to day operations of a business
As it pertains to your IT foundation and environment and applications, in the end it is really about who ‘owns’ it and who must protect this infrastructure and secure it. Regardless of any particular choices or preferences, the real decision is whether it is you and your IT service provider are going to be responsible for these things entirely OR whether you will rely on the cloud data storage or application provider alone.
The above choice might seem reasonable at first but everyone involved must do their part. It is not good enough to completely abdicate any responsibility to the online application or storage provider. Threats may enter through your network that will affect, and possibly render useless any ‘cloud-stored’ data that you may have. Or the provider may be compromised. Ransomware knows no boundaries. Syncing is great, but the syncing will also sync any compromised data.
An advantage of using all online applications is that anyone who needs them can access them from anywhere with an Internet connection, and, in many cases, just a laptop or desktop and a browser. Another advantage is that it is a subscription that has a fixed or somewhat-fixed price per month so that the investment can be made over time.
A possible disadvantage of using online applications includes vendor lock-in (Can you ever, easily get your data out and transition to a similar vendor that you determine to be better 2-3 years later?) Price is also a consideration. Online, subscription-based applications can cost twice, 3x or 4x versus running something in-house. If you maintain these in-house, though, you and your IT service provider become more important, as you, together, will have primary responsibility for protecting your investment and the continuity of the business. Downtime is BAD, whatever the cause.
As for the choice between applications that run on a server (or one in a data center) or applications that run online, there is too much ‘religion’ being thrown around regarding such a choice. Online, subscription providers or vendors all claim to be more secure, but how can they prove that to be true? Even if a vendor has not yet been compromised, ask them what they are doing to secure your data and online applications.
If you or your IT provider is maintaining data and applications onsite, these should also be protected. In both instances, the question should not be “Can I get my data back?” but “How long would it take to restore the data, application and environment so that I can resume normal business operations?” The answer to this should be minutes or hours, not days or weeks or months.
If you have ONLY online applications or are using many of them, access to the Internet from the business location or locations becomes increasingly important or absolutely paramount. Consider your Internet provider’s reliability and also consider a redundant Internet connection that will be used without having to manually switch things over – and back. This solution will require a true router, not just the gateway or modem that ATT or Comcast provides – one that can accept multiple WAN (Internet) connections and allows a failover option.
Whatever choices you are pondering, we are happy to help with your decision(s), regardless of whether you are working directly or consistently with us in your IT environment. If you have been with us for years, we probably should be having the conversation more often. If you use another IT service provider, we will not try to pry you away from them but we can offer some input that may help.
Let us know what is on your mind right now with this particular topic or any other IT considerations. We are happy to listen, provide feedback and assist, as necessary. Feel free to call, email or txt.
Happy New Year! And continued success in 2024!
Tom Grundig – 925.528.9081 – tom@grundigit.com
Quote of the Month:
“Play by the rules, but be ferocious. “
— Phil Knight
