Clearing Up Cloud Confusion

Transcription

1 6 Lessons For The Small Business Owner By Terry Tanker 5 Tips For Helping Older Employees Excel By Jennifer FitzPatrick 8 When To Stop Cutting And Start Growing By Ruth King 10 Plan Ahead For Partner Disability By Mike Coyne 12 How Writing A Book Fulfilled My Dream By Greg McAfee 24 FEBRUARY 2012 / vol.7 / no.2 Clearing Up Cloud Confusion How a cloud-computing model can save money, increase capability, and relieve IT headaches for HVACR contractors. Page 14 Commercial Service Agreements: How To Write Proposals Page 18 Management Resource Shelf Start Something New Questions With, Ann Kahn, Kahn Mechanical...26 >>

2 Clearing Up Cloud Confusion How a cloud-computing model can save money, increase capability, and relieve IT headaches for HVACR contractors. By Heather Onorati The cloud. It s all the rage. But as much attention as cloud computing gets, it seems not many people fully understand what it is. A recent market-sentiment survey conducted by The Small Business Authority found that 71% of the approximate 1,800 surveyed small business owners have never heard of cloud computing. So what is this mysterious cloud, and why should you start looking toward the sky? At its most basic level, the cloud refers to the Internet. When people say they re working in the cloud, it means they re accessing software services and files that reside on a server in a secured data center in another location often multiple locations rather than accessing files that live directly on personal or in-house servers, or wireless devices. A cloud product or service can be anything from software for word processing, customer relationship management, or accounting to web-based services (think Yahoo, Hotmail, Google, AOL), website hosting, file storage, backup, and customizable and fully managed server solutions. Traditionally, businesses have had servers on-site to which each employee s computer is configured, running through programs such as Microsoft Exchange. Each computer is set up with a variety of applications, and then there is some kind of technology support on a regular or contract basis, said Greg Pierce, Managing Director/Cloud Computing, Tribridge, an IT consulting company for businesses. When people say they re working in the cloud, it means they re accessing software services and files that reside on a server in a secured data center in another location often multiple locations. The problem, according to Pierce, is that this gets expensive and frustrating. With cloud computing, businesses pay a monthly fee and no longer have to worry about managing the cycle of buying new equipment and upgrading software every 36 months. Also gone is the headache and expense that can come with hiring a contractor or team of experts to install, configure, secure, and maintain everything. Working in the cloud So how does it work? Think of the service agreement you offer to your customers. It involves a fixed investment for which the customer receives peace of mind knowing that a specially trained staff of experts will provide regular maintenance and service on the equipment to maintain its life and troubleshoot potential problems before they arise. Similarly, a cloud-services provider will offer you the technology solutions that meet your needs. You ll sign a service-level agreement in which you ll agree to a subscription fee for those specified services: i.e., server space, applications, file storage. The cloud service provider manages and maintains the 14 HVACR Business FEBRuary 2012 HVACRBUSINESS.com

3 How To Evaluate Cloud Vendors By Heather Onorati equipment and upgrades while you use your computer or any wireless device to access the server, files, and/or software over the Internet. There s no installation, configuration, integration, or maintenance on your end. Behind the scenes there are public clouds and private clouds. Public clouds are like condominiums, Pierce said. You share a certain amount of space, but you have a portion dedicated to you. On public clouds, thousands of customers with tens of thousands of users are connecting to the same resource. As the number of customers accessing one resource increases, this drives the price of that resource down substantially for each customer. The down side of the public cloud is that, for the most part, the solutions are standard and can t be customized for every customer. An example would be Microsoft 365, which provides webbased , access to online versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, as well as SharePoint intranet for sharing files and collaboratively creating and managing documents. Private cloud solutions offer more flexibility in that you gain access to the server space on which you can have a customized solution. For this reason, private clouds will cost a little more, but will still be less expensive long-term than maintaining all of the hardware and software yourself. So, for example, a contractor can subscribe to a public or private cloud solution for access to industry-specific software services such as job costing, inventory, quoting, mobile technician dispatching all of which can be integrated, as well as business-side solutions for human resources, taxes, and payroll. Public is great for things that are commoditized, Pierce said. In other words, things like that don t have As the number of customers accessing one resource increases, this drives the price of that resource down substantially for each customer. a ton of customization. This is something that you plug in and get to work. If you have an application, even if it s e- mail, that needs to be heavily integrated with other applications, or it s something that s specific to your industry, then you re going to be looking at a private cloud solution. A solution for contractors could be a hybrid cloud, Pierce said. Let s say you have an HVAC contractor that has 10 employees that access data. You might want to put your and SharePoint file storage within a public cloud and then maybe you have a system for dispatch and for maintenance of systems that s more proprietary. It Continued on page 16 A good thing for business owners is that there are a number of cloud service providers to choose from. The frustrating part is how do you distinguish among them? How do you know which will bring sunshine and which, the storms? Ask good questions to really understand the service level agreement, said Greg Pierce, Managing Director Cloud Computing, Tribridge. And make sure you clarify ahead of time data ownership. If something happens, you want to be able to get your data back no matter what. The agreement should include language that provides for a termination event, and in which case, the cloud provider will cooperate with transitioning the business information to a new provider, said Brad Walz, a managing associate at the law firm Winthrop & Weinstine in Minneapolis, who specializes in intellectual property related to cloud computing. Another thing to look at from a security standpoint, Walz said, is whether the company has undergone an information security audit. Find out whether the company is SSAE16 compliant, SAS70 compliant, or ISO compliant. This tells you that they ve undergone testing to measure the security procedures they have in place. It s especially important to know if you re putting anything confidential or proprietary on the provider s server, he said. You should also look into service availability, he advised. Since you re going to be relying on the provider to make sure the software and hardware services that you signed up for are available, you want to find out how often the company has had downtime and for how long that downtime occurred (where there was no access to the services). Some of the company s statistical information may be found in its annual report published by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. You ll have to ask smaller companies for their details. Where the real investigation needs to occur is what is meant by availability and when does downtime start counting against that statistic, Walz said. Each cloud provider will define downtime differently. Some might measure on a collective rather than a per-incident basis. Evaluating providers isn t much different that evaluating something like a business loan, said Barry Sloane, President and CEO of The Small Business Authority. You could choose a bank that caters to Fortune 1000 companies and does enterprise solutions or one that deals better with small businesses, he said. If you don t understand what it is they re offering, if they re unwilling to work with you to develop a solution that specifically meets your needs, move to the next provider. HVACRBUSINESS.com HVACR Business FEBRUARY

4 Continued from page 15 doesn t lend itself to a public cloud, so you put that part in a private cloud. The experience from the end user [your employees] is exactly the same. They don t know that they re connecting here for public cloud and here for private cloud, but you re leveraging the best of both worlds. Benefits of sharing space Whether private or public, the cloud has numerous benefits worth considering. Primarily, experts agree that it s less expensive, it s more secure, and it s scalable to meet your specific needs at any point. It saves you money because you re not purchasing the server, and you re renting hardware, software, and maintenance, said Barry Sloane, President and CEO of The Small Business Authority. Therefore, you don t need the local IT contractor you may be paying up to $5,000 a month. And, most importantly, you pay for what you use. If businesses set themselves up in the cloud, they will reduce their costs, and they ll be more efficient, Sloane said. We ve estimated that our cloud solutions can save business owners 30% to 40% minimum off of their IT costs. The scalability aspect is a tremendous advantage, said Brad Walz, a managing associate at the law firm Winthrop & Weinstine in Minneapolis. He specializes in intellectualproperty related to cloud computing. As a small business, you can really take control over your computing costs, Walz said. Let s say when you need more space or you need more servers online because let s just say you re in the retail industry and you re expecting high volumes of sales and a lot of those sales The experts agree there are certainly risks to relinquishing your proprietary data for storage in remote locations. are being made on the Internet. You can request additional servers and then when that demand subsides, you can scale back and request fewer servers. Another benefit, Walz said, is that smaller businesses can take advantage of economies of scale that allow multiple parties to take advantage of a single software application. The ORACLE accounting software and other types of applications are really expensive to purchase; so when ORACLE puts something like that in the cloud and allows multiple businesses to access that application, they can Here Comes THE CLOUD Whether you are moving to a cloud model for your business or not, you should get to know the cloud. Products and services in all industries including HVACR are starting to incorporate cloud computing. Here are a few examples: Filters: FilterFetch from Jackson Systems This year Jackson Systems will roll out FilterFetch, a cloud-based online ordering system for filters and filterinventory management. According to the company, benefits of FilterFetch for contractors include: Air filter inventory management (i.e., ordering, tracking, shipping, storage) never has to be done by the contractor as all they have to do is give the customer/consumer the code, which they then just enter online to order new filters. The filter is at the jobsite waiting for the technician, and the contractor receives commissions. With the Contractor Dashboard, the contractor can see which customers/consumers are purchasing filters and which field techs offered it to them (helpful if bonuses are paid on sales). And, all of the financial tracking can easily be seen for the contractors commissions from orders. Reduced costs because contractors no longer need to store filters and take losses from missing, damaged, or obsolete filters. Thermostats: Nest Labs Learning Thermostat by Nest Labs From this technology start up staffed by former Apple employees comes a learning thermostat that runs on a cloud-and-mobile-app model. The thermostat is billed as having enough intelligence to save energy through climate-control automation. This thermostat and others that use wireless technology to connect to remote servers are products within an emerging category called the energy web. GPS and fleet management: SageQuest Mobile Control Several GPS and fleet-management services, such as SageQuest Mobile Control, use cloud computing to power their applications. Building performance: Optimum Energy Optimum Energy LLC provides commercial and institutional facilities owners and managers with cloud-based software and services that enable them to optimize the energy efficiency of their HVAC systems. Boilers: The Smart Boiler Control System by Ajax Boiler The system uses the Ajax Management System to provide real-time management of its HVAC and plumbing equipment. The system is web-enabled and takes advantage of latest technologies enabling end-users to remotely view real-time HVAC and plumbing system fluctuations. 16 HVACR Business FEBRuary 2012 HVACRBUSINESS.com

5 charge a lower price. So as a small business owner, you can really get the benefit of some of these very expensive enterprise pieces of software that typically have been used only by large companies. From a technology perspective, a small business owner can really be on the same level as some of the largest Fortune 100 companies. Last but very important is the security aspect. According to Sloane, their survey also indicated that the majority of businesses they spoke with (78%) admitted to having data or critical information, software or hardware in their offices such as such as a server, a tower, or a hard drive that may not be secure. And 71% also said that their data was not stored or backed up off-site, a figure he believes may be much higher because companies who said they did back-up files had very loose ways of conducting that backup. A complete backup solution should be one where the data transfers automatically and is stored in a remote facility, in a different location so you re diversifying your natural disaster or weather-related risk and is 100% secure, Sloane describes. The experts agree there are certainly risks to relinquishing your proprietary data for storage in remote locations. The reality though, Walz said, is that for cloud providers, data privacy and security is part of their business, so they are likely to have in place vastly better methods of protecting data than a business owner with a closet-side server. A complete backup solution should be one where the data transfers automatically and is stored in a remote facility, in a different location so you re diversifying your natural disaster or weather-related risk and is 100% secure. Barry Sloane, President and CEO of The Small Business Authority The bottom line is that, for many business owners, the advantages far outweigh the risks. A survey conducted of nearly 1,000 technology stakeholders and critics by the Pew Research Center s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University s Imagining the Internet Center, revealed that 71% expected that by 2020, most people would be working in Internet-based applications and accessing information through remote server networks from a variety of wireless devices. And although some respondents expressed concerns over security, control over data, and technology restrictions, most believed that cloud computing would continue to expand and come to dominate information transactions because it offers so many advantages. It just may be that the sky is the limit. n Heather Onorati is former editor of HVACR Business and now works as a writer and editor in business communications. HVACRBUSINESS.com HVACR Business FEBRUARY