What is Cloud Technology?

In a nutshell, the advantage of hitching one’s business to ‘the cloud’ (in other words, to the Internet and existing servers) is that it eliminates the need as a business owner to install and run applications on your own or on a customer’s computer. Equally, the costly burden of maintenance and support is scrapped.

The cloud is a hugely attractive option because of its on-demand nature and the fact that it functions in real time.

Many of us are already using public clouds already, even just by having our archive of instant messages logged on Skype, Google Talk or on MSN. When you access them, you are using the cloud.

In business terms, getting access to the cloud tends to take the form either of pay-per-use or of subscription.

Secondly, many opt for a private cloud, but where savings are a significant factor in the decision, a Community Cloud is possibly a better choice. This way, the workload is shared among various customers. Costs are cut because the infrastructure is owned by the provider. There is no need, therefore, for it to be purchased for on-demand computing tasks initiated by the firm’s users.

A related benefit is that with the cloud comes easy adaptation to fluctuating user demands, the upside being that you do not need to install additional hardware or software. There are time-saving advantages too, simply because cloud technology kicks in faster than its traditional counterpart. A positive spin-off is fast recovery. Best of all, your team of employees have access to work-related data from any location.

The answer, therefore, to the question ‘Can the cloud save my business?’ is as follows: If clunky outmoded technology is holding you back and incurring unnecessary expenses are a burden on your business, then, yes, embracing cloud technology could save your business both money and time.

While I was talking to him, I was checking the shop he had problems with. I wouldn’t have bought from it. Here’s how I checked it:-

1. Check the Page

Open the front page of the site in one browser window and then use another window to get to a page that ought to be secure (the payment/checkout page is my usual one). Look at them both. Do either of them show any logos from well-known payment (Barclays, RBS, Protx, …) or security-checking services (thawte – who else?)? That’s not entirely reliable, but it’s usually a good sign because those companies attack people using their marks without permission.

Look at the payment/checkout page – does the address in the address bar start “https”? If so, is the padlock in the browser status bar (usually bottom right) closed? That usually means it’s encrypted with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.

2. Check the Certificate

Open the certificate details. In Firefox-based browsers, double-click the padlock, then click the “View Certificate” button. Then pick “Subject” in the second list box. Usually, it looks like this:-

Basic Certificate Screenshot

Some shops now use Extended Validation certificates and give a bit more information. Here’s one from a train company:-

Extended Validation Screenshot

3. Check the Registrations

By this point, the payment processing and actual transaction are looking pretty good. Finally, I check the recipient. Find the business details on the web shop. Does it include a geographic address? If it contains a company registration number, look it up on the Companies House website.

Then I find the business details on the domain names – you can use CoolWhois to look up domain names. If any of the addresses or numbers don’t match (Website, SSL Certificate, Whois), then I call them to ask why their website says they’re based in Bristol but their domain name is registered to Bolton. If they don’t answer messages, or – worse – the domain name says “Non-trading Individual” and the address has been omitted from the public listing, I give up on them and look for another shop. There’s no point securely paying someone that you can never reach if there’s a problem.

4. Buy Stuff and Check the Statements

All being well, I then buy stuff and check my credit card statement each month before I pay it. I think any web shop owner (or webmaster – I help some people with this sort of thing) should be taking care of the basics above. Do your shops measure up?

Despite the above checks, I can only remember not buying something online once in the last year. A couple of times, I’ve worked through the above steps and it’s changed which shop I bought from – and I’m pretty sure it saved me from losing £400 on one purchase.

In general, it’s a little disappointing when you get a “null pointer” from a private company, but it’s particularly annoying from a university. University mistakes like “technology transfer programmes” (that stop software becoming free software available to social enterprises) are justified by a need to get more money – but clearly this particular university has money to waste. How about others?

If there was a way to subscribe to email or blog news of their research publications, I probably would have subscribed. Instead, I’ve just ranted here (without rewarding them with a link) and now I’m going to recycle the flier. I’ll probably have forgotten the three-letter acronym by next week. It’s simply bad marketing. It’s paper spam. Please, if you are putting things into conference handout packs, ask yourself why? What are you hoping to get out of it? How are you going to measure its success?

The IoD has 52,000 members in the UK, many of them small to medium businesses who will be able to use this service at a reduced rate. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM offer will cost IoD members £35 per user, per month while non-members can subscribe for £45 per user, per month. There is an additional offer of one month’s service free if they sign up before June 2008.

For more information see IoD Hosted IT Services

“As the business environment becomes ever more competitive, our members need the tools and support to attract new customers while retaining their existing ones,” said Andrew Main Wilson, chief operating officer at the IoD.

The service will be hosted by Microsoft partner Rackspace.