Cloud Services - Team Tech Guru

Google Apps for Work

Google services were born and raised in the cloud and is the new kid on the block when it comes to productivity suites. They have been designed to work from anywhere and on any device by ensuring that everything they do is fully supported in a web browser and optimized for the Chrome browser and platform. The experience Google provides is one that will feel familiar to the person who has leveraged Gmail, Drive, Hangouts, and other Google services in their personal life. In general Google tends to be the most aggressive when it comes to price and provides enough of an experience to get things done. With no desktop applications to manage or deploy many organizations like the "freedom" Google Apps for Work can bring. If your company has never had a business productivity suite before or you are willing to try things in a different way that is designed as a "browser first" experience, Google Apps for Work may be an excellent option.

Google Apps for Work has plans for businesses, education, government and nonprofit that are divided into two types that include includes tools for Communications, Storage, and Collaboration:

Gmail for basic email services
Calendar provides scheduling teams
Google+ is a social network for both consumers and businesses
Google Hangouts provides online voice and video collaboration
Google Drive provides storage
Vault provides archiving and e-discovery for Google Apps
Docs, Sheets, Forms, and Slides are the productivity suite
Sites provides internal and external websites for teams Enable staff to work from anywhere

Note: other Google services such as Chat, Voice, Picasa, Blogger can be used but are not part of Google Apps for Work or covered by support.

Office 365

Office 365 is Microsoft's productivity suite redesigned for the cloud. Microsoft started on premises and is regarded as the 800 pound gorilla in productivity suites. However, as businesses have shifted to the cloud Microsoft has had to adjust their products to accommodate. As a result, there are productivity options that have been redesigned from the ground up for the cloud as well as enhances made to on premises productivity tools to integrate with cloud services. Microsoft's services are not the least expensive option for cloud productivity options, but are considered to be the most fully featured, integrated and mature. That said, Microsoft has made it so that adopting the cloud productivity suite is now the most cost effective way to get Microsoft software with purchasing traditional licenses actually costing more. Many organizations like the familiar feel of Microsoft Office tools and the ability to continue using software they have installed on their systems or the option to leverage web based versions of those tools. It's typically the familiarity, power, and quality of the tools that drive businesses to choose Microsoft.

Office 365 has multiple plans for Small Business, Enterprise, Education, Government and Nonprofit that allow for a large amount of flexibility to determine what features are made available as well as optional services that can be added onto a standard subscription:

Exchange Online for email and collaboration
SharePoint Online for intranet and extranet sites
Lync Online for Instant Messaging, Web and Dial-In Conferencing, Audio/Video calls and conferencing
PBX replacement when integrated with a Lync Hybrid solution for full Enterprise Voice
OneDrive for Business to provide storage
Yammer for enterprise social networking
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook, Access, OneNote, and Lync)
Project and Project Online for project management
Dynamics CRM Online for Sales, Service, Marketing, and Social productivity
Power BI for Office 365 for analytics
Hybrid Integration with an on premises environment for services and authentication

Note: the included services depend on the subscription chosen and may include option services outside of the core Office 365 subscription.

Google Drive

Google Drive is included with Google Apps to provide storage for end users. It is important to note that although the functionality is nearly identical to the consumer version of the product that Google Drive for Work should not be confused with a personal version of Google Drive. Google Drive for Work supports additional IT administration controls to allow businesses additional control over their user population and data. It is also important to consider that storage is shared between Gmail and Drive towards your entire quota, however, Google has always been very generous with the amount of storage provided with 30 GB shared in the basic Google Apps for Work plan and unlimited storage in the advanced plan (or 1 TB per user if fewer than 5 users).

Some key features of Google Drive are:

Unlimited storage options that applies to all data needs
Advanced admin controls for Drive with the advanced plan
Synchronization of files with multiple devices types
Secure file sharing with Google Account users
File viewing via web browser
Google powered search
Hundreds of 3rd party integrated apps

OneDrive

OneDrive for Business is Microsoft's cloud storage offering. This should not be confused with the personal OneDrive storage option available for consumers. OneDrive for Business is capable of being fully integrated into an Office 365 account and supports advanced IT administration controls to allow businesses additional control over their user population and data. Every user of Office 365 user with OneDrive for Business gets 1 TB of storage that is considered separate from all other types of storage they may have allocated to them. OneDrive is fully integrated with Office 365 online applications and Office desktop applications to allow for editing, reviewing, sharing, and collaborating on documents in real-time.

Some key features of OneDrive for Business are:

Included Unlimited Storage to support file storage needs
Support for viewing and co-authoring of documents using browser or desktop applications
Ability to define folder and file level synchronization to optimize disk space
Synchronization of files with multiple devices types
Advanced file share security that can leverage Microsoft Accounts, Active Directory, and Federated security
Full Integration with Office 365 stack to integrate collaboration and productivity tools
Support for hybrid solutions to mix on premises solutions with cloud storage
Data loss prevention and enterprise controls over data security

Box

Box is considered to be the leader in cloud storage. Their offerings have provided levels of security, management, and integration not available in other platforms that have resulted in them being considered the leader in the online storage space according to Gartner. Although Box provides only storage (it is not a full productivity suite), it can be integrated into online productivity suites such Office 365 and Google Apps, with traditional on premises infrastructure, or used by individuals for their personal needs.

Box is known for providing several advanced capabilities including:

Secure file sharing
Online collaboration
File Synchronization
IT & Admin Controls
Enterprise Security
Policy & Workflow Management
Platform and API for custom development
Web, Mobile and Desktop Apps
Professional Support and Services

Salesforce

Salesforce.com is considered the leader in online customer relationship management (CRM). Born and raised in the cloud, Salfesforce.com is designed to run purely in the cloud and leverage cloud tools. However, this doesn't means Salesforce.com can't integrate with on premises productivity tools. Extensions for popular applications like Outlook and integration with cloud services such as Office 365 and Google Apps make Salesforce.com a versatile player in the CRM space. With solutions in Sales, Service, Marketing, Community, Analytics and Platform, Salesforce.com has a very powerful and complete set of services available to empower your business.

Salesforce.com is the regarded as the leader in CRM and provides a suite of tools to help you succeed:

Sales - leverage Sales Cloud for CRM and sales force automation along with data.com for B2B contact and account information
Service - using Service Cloud and Desk.com enhance customer service from call center to self-service portals through service solutions
Marketing - create personalized, cross-channel customer journeys leveraging Marketing Cloud and Pardot for B2B marketing automation
Community - tools include Community Cloud and Chatter to provide customer engagement and employee collaboration
Analytics - use Analytics Cloud to provide personalized self-service analytics of business data across the enterprise to enhance sales and marketing
Platform and Apps - the Salesforce1 Platform and force.com allow your team to build powerful custom applications leveraging Salesforce.com

Considering make the leap from on premise systems to cloud hosted technology and the benefits this can bring? Let us walk you through the process and help you decide if the time is right. Moving to the cloud needs to be a business decision – it’s not just about the technology we’ll help ensure you can meet the business outcomes you’re looking for.

Microsoft CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online provides a customer relationship management (CRM) business solution that improves the effectiveness of sales productivity and marketing through social insights, business intelligence, and campaign management. Dynamics CRM can be deployed in the cloud and integrated into Office 365 or in a hybrid configuration with on-premises infrastructure. CRM is often used to help reduce costs and increase profitability by making it easier for your business to organize and automate business processes the improve customer satisfaction and loyalty by providing marketing automation, customer service, and sales force automation tools. Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides a suite of tools that are tailored to your market, designed for your business size, and dedicated to helping you grow your business through satisfied customers.

The business solutions typically covered by Dynamics CRM include:

Sales - selling effectively to help you close faster and sell more
Retail - giving customers multi-channel solutions everywhere they shop
Marketing - market smarter and engage customers, build pipeline, and demonstrate impact
Social - listen to social feeds everywhere to allow you to connect to your customers
Services - manage client projects better to improve execution and efficiency

Google Cloud Platform

Some of the reasons businesses choose Google Cloud

Enable staff to work from anywhere
Reduce the reliance on in-house servers
Enable collaboration between workers in difference locations

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services is considered to be the leader in hosted infrastructure and cloud computing. When considering a hosted infrastructure solution it is important to first distinguish between hosted services and hosted infrastructure (e.g. servers). Hosted services means there are no systems to manage, patch and maintain and that you are able to focus on your application (e.g. website). With hosted infrastructure you can fully manage the server and have the flexibility to customize the platform in ways that may not be possible with a hosted service. Amazon Web Services provides an extremely broad range of solutions and 3rd party integrations that make it the most extendable platform on the market today. In addition, the ease of obtaining a free account for a full year (with limited scale of course), make it easy to jump right in.

Windows Azure

Rackspace

How We Help

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Provisioning and setup of any required services in the cloud or onsite to help you grow or get started
Ongoing maintenance and enhancement to the services you choose to keep things running smoothly
Flexible on demand or scheduled services for your onsite and cloud infrastructure and support needs
Strategic advisory services to help you plan for the future as your business expands and technology changes