Even so, virtual desktops offer firms a host of compelling benefits. Read on to learn more.

Benefit: Cost Savings

Virtual desktops run on servers located in third-party facilities. For this reason, local hardware requirements are minimal. Firms don’t need to buy expensive desktop computers with powerful onboard graphics and multithreaded CPUs. Terminals that offer basic computing performance and connect to third-party servers will suffice.

Because of this, the cost savings are tremendous. A study by the International Data Corporation found that virtualisation could reduce IT outlays by as much as 56 percent.

Benefit 2: Workplace Flexibility

Virtualisation also offers workplace flexibility for the obvious reason that employees can access documents, files and data wherever they are, on any device.

With more than 87 percent of organisations now relying on employees to use their personal devices, virtualisation is essential. Companies need to be able to offer workers enterprise-level performance on consumer-grade devices for both security and productivity purposes. And that’s what virtualisation brings.

Benefit 3: Centralised Troubleshooting

Legacy IT network administrators used cumbersome methods to troubleshoot software. Employees would encounter a problem and then submit a ticket. Admins would then fix the problem on a local level, only solving it for their part of the network.

Unfortunately, under this scheme, large organisations wound up replicating work. IT professionals at different sites would encounter and fix the same problems over and over again, wasting valuable time and costing the business a lot of money.

Virtualisation deals with this issue by centralising the network. Any changes made at the top filter down to all end-users. Network maintenance is global, not piecemeal so a fix for one, is a fix for all.

Benefit 4: Improved Disaster Recovery

According to estimates from Managed 24/7, workplace technology failures cost UK companies more than £35 billion per year. However, virtual desktops may partially solve this problem.

How? It’s simple. When businesses no longer rely on static on-premises computers, they can more widely distribute their data across cloud servers. Even if one system fails, there’s always another available to step in and provide backup. In some cases, disaster recovery systems can be so efficient that there is no downtime at all and users may not even be aware that a failure has occurred.

Benefit 5: Hassle-Free Updates

Lastly, virtual desktops facilitate hassle-free updates. Organisations can roll out changes to all user endpoints at the same time, instead of having to do it terminal by terminal, desk by desk.

Desktop as a Service from anywhere.tech

Anywhere.tech offers desktop as a service (DaaS) which gives you all the benefits described above and many more. Such systems make it possible for employees to work anywhere securely (as the name implies), reducing your overheads and improving business agility.

Pease drop us a line or give us a call and we can arrange a demonstration of our lightning fast desktop as a service.

But what’s driving this shift, though? Why is cloud usage growing so dramatically? And what are the drawbacks? Let’s take a look. 

The benefits of moving to the cloud

The benefits of moving to the cloud are tremendous. 

Reduced costs

Perhaps the biggest economic driver of cloud adoption is reduced costs. It’s often just so much cheaper than using traditional in-house services. 

There are four main reasons for this: 

• Economies of scale – it’s cheaper for cloud computing companies to make efficiency improvements because they have so many servers in comparison to a single business.
• Greater utilisation rates – most cloud service providers are running at between 30 and 40 percent (not the usual 10 to 15 percent of regular in-house systems).
• Greater flexibility, particularly when installing and updating new software.
• Reduced management and organisational costs of making IT network changes as these are spread across many customers not just one.

More support

Firms are also switching to the cloud because of improved support. They want to have people on the phone immediately who can help them resolve technical issues, without having to wait for engineers to travel to them and fix problems. Most cloud service providers give customers the ability to file tickets with them and get quick responses often more or less instantly and certainly within an hour or two. 

Greater Scalability

The cloud is also scalable. It’s easy to add new accounts or storage space because the physical capacity to do so already exists in a large server farm. It’s also easy to go the other way and reduce the number of licenses needed and keep costs closely aligned to your needs.

Access

Then there are the access benefits. Employees can get into their accounts no matter where they are in the world, so long as they have an internet connection. They don’t have to go into the office and sign in via a legacy portal. 

Real-time collaboration

Lastly, the cloud facilitates real-time collaboration. Staff can log and work on projects together in real-time, including spreadsheets, documents and even building designs. More and more applications are being developed that enhance the way dispersed teams worth together. 

The downsides of using the cloud

Unfortunately, there are some disadvantages of using the cloud. These include: 

• Losing the ability to fully control your data as at some point you are storing it with another company (the cloud provider).
• Vulnerabilities in shared environments, particularly if people connect using their private devices remotely. You will need to have control over a wider range of devices and ways that people access the data.
• The need to protect yourself against poorly designed or insecure APIs and user interfaces.

What a good cloud IT provider should offer

There is considerable variation in the quality of cloud IT service providers. A good one should offer the following: 

• A consultative approach to tailor the cloud infrastructure closely to your business needs rather than taking a “one size fits all approach”
• Certifications and standards confirming their expertise with a wide range of software and hardware providers
• Support for migration from legacy systems over to the cloud
• Service level agreements (SLAs), spelling out precisely what they will offer you
• Good reliability and performance
• A backup strategy to protect your data in all circumstances
• Growth and future planning to ensure your systems track your development

We have a wide range of clients of all shapes and sizes and would welcome the opportunity to discuss your cloud plans with you. If you are completely new to cloud computing, then we can talk you through the main benefits for your organisation. Please give us a call or drop us a line.

Therefore, it is critical to master the art of cloud disaster recovery. But what is it? And why is it so important? 

What Is Disaster Recovery? 

Cloud disaster recovery is a system that allows you to recover lost data, even if some servers are breached. Recovery entails connecting your IT network to recent versions of your data on separate servers that have not been compromised (for instance, those with still-functioning hard drives). 

Cloud-based disaster recovery systems differ from conventional ones. Instead of manually storing data on separate physical devices in the office, providers facilitate it by distributing data to several internet-connected servers (usually across multiple geographical locations). 

Important Aspects of Cloud Disaster Recovery

Cloud disaster recovery allows businesses to recover data using a remote cloud-based platform, usually under the supervision of an IT services provider. A primary data centre stores and permits access to the data a company needs right now, while a secondary (and sometimes tertiary site) takes regular snapshots of a company’s data and updates it periodically. 

Thus, cloud-based disaster recovery offers several aspects that typically aren’t available through legacy systems. These include: 

• No requirement to maintain any equipment onsite. Companies can farm out the task of storing their data to third-party sites, managed and maintained independently by specialists. 
• Easy ability to scale operations up or down. Subscription prices typically depend on the quantity of data storage consumed and the ongoing bandwidth being used. Prices may also rise depending on the frequency of data snapshots – more frequent being more expensive. 
• Disaster recovery can occur within minutes – sometimes seconds – via the cloud. A third-party disaster recovery firm detects an anomaly in the primary data repository (perhaps because of hard drive corruptions) and then switches to the secondary system almost immediately. Moreover, users can initiate data recovery remotely without having to travel to a specific site or bring physical drives out of storage.
• Firms can store their data across multiple geographies, eliminating any single point of failure. Multiple copies of company data can sit in data centres across the world. 
• Subscription-based or pay-as-you-go pricing dramatically reduces setup costs versus conventional data backup solutions. 
• 24/7 monitoring of servers by service providers reduces the failure rate and improves the integrity of the system. 

Cloud recovery is more valuable than many business leaders believe. It can help combat direct cyberattacks, ransomware, and other disasters, including physical flooding or fire.

Enterprises typically understand that value of having a disaster recovery plan, but they haven’t yet put it into action. Disaster recovery strategy involves leveraging the cloud to lower risk.

Call us now to start an initial discussion on how our cloud based infrastructure and data recovery systems can help protect your business.

We cover everything from “Which is best?” type questions through to “What is Cloud?” So a huge range of topics and we’re adding to them every month.

Your Backups Are Best Hosted In A Separate Facility To Mitigate Risk

For backups, we use a separate UK based facility to ensure that if a disaster happens such as the fire at French cloud computing provider OVH, back-ups will not be destroyed at the same time as the original data. However this may not be the case with another cloud provider.

There are many reasons why it is critical to keep backups at secondary and tertiary locations, separate from the main site. 

First, computers can crash – even expensive servers used in data centres – and that can lead to data loss, corruption and access issues. 

Secondly, data server hard drives can fail without warning and in addition to this, recovering data from modern storage devices, such as SSDs, is often substantially more challenging that previous generation HDD technology. 

Viruses can also compromise local data servers. Infections can disable all the computers in a specific location, necessitating off-site backups elsewhere. 

Theft is also a concern in some locations. Thieves may steal physical server hardware and all your data along with it. 

Then, finally, there is the risk of physical damage. Storms, earthquakes, flooding and other localised natural disasters can render cloud servers inoperable. 

In light of this, it makes sense to distribute data among servers far and wide. This can be done automatically, according to a protocol we set for you and in our systems will be at different UK based locations. 

Do You Have To Store Data In UK Data Centres? 

Since leaving the EU, GDPR regulations are being replaced and soon will no longer apply to the UK. Instead, operators must follow Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) – an act that essentially mirrors GDPR and adds  “meat to the bone” in some places. The legislation applies to controllers and processors located in the United Kingdom (with a few exceptions).

Regulators believe that individuals risk losing protection if they transfer their data abroad. Because of this, businesses face restrictions on the transfer of personal data outside of the UK. In some special circumstances (such as when it is clear that the individual’s rights to protection are maintained in another way), cloud service providers may be able to transfer data out of the country, but this rarely applies. Most data flows of this type fall under the definition of a “restricted transfer.” 

In light of these laws, organisations need to be careful. In some sectors, it is mandatory to host the data in the UK due to data protection regulations. However, some data centre operators have automatic backups outside of the UK, meaning you should always be clear on where your backups are. 

If cloud services store data abroad, they need to follow so-called “adequacy regulations.” These determine whether the location in which you want to store your data offers adequate protection for individuals. They’ll also need to ensure that they put “appropriate safeguards” in place, as referred to in UK GDPR. If they don’t, then any transfers of personal data out of the UK could be illegal.

In the past, users relied on “single-factor” authentication methods, such as passwords, to verify their identity. But over time, cybercriminals became more sophisticated, finding ways to get around passwords and access user data. Examples include the creation of password databases and the development of keystroke-logging software. 

As the digital ecosystem developed, the need for a more sophisticated approach to account protection emerged. Users required more than just a simple password standing between the hackers and their accounts.

The solution is multifactor authentication. But what is it? And does it really work? 

What Is Multi factor Authentication (MFA)? 

Multifactor authentication is any security measure that uses two or more independent methods to verify a user’s identity. 

For instance, suppose your banking app uses two-factor authentication. Logging into your account might go something like this: 

1. Enter your password into the app
2. View a message telling you that the app has sent a unique authorisation code to your phone via SMS
3. Open the code in your message inbox
4. Enter the code into the app’s verification box

The first “factor” is the password the user enters. The second “factor” is the SMS code sent to their phone. Ideally, both of these factors should be independent of each other. 

Why Use Multi factor Authentication?

Logging into your account using MFA takes longer than simply typing in a password, but it is also much more secure. That’s because even if cybercriminals have your password, they probably don’t have access to your phone as well. 

There are many examples of multi factor authentication currently in use. Generally these break down into “something the user knows” (such as PINs, passwords, and answers to secret questions), “something the user has” (such as the Google Authenticator app on their phone), or “something the user is” (such as their fingerprint, palm print, retina scan, signature or DNA). 

In theory, multifactor authentication can combine any number of these verification methods. So, for instance, to access an e-Wallet from your Apple phone, a vendor could ask you to enter PIN, use the Google Authenticator app and scan your fingerprint. Using more than two methods isn’t particularly user-friendly, but it will make your account more secure. 

Is It A Foolproof System? 

Multifactor authentication tends to be dramatically more effective than passwords alone. Studies from both Microsoft and Google suggest that it blocks more than 99.9 percent of automated attacks. 

However, despite being substantially more secure than regular passwords, multi factor authentication still isn’t foolproof. For instance, if a criminal steals your phone and knows your password, they may be able to bypass a two-factor authentication system. 

There are also ways to steal your biometric data. Fingerprint spoofing (which involves lifting and copying your fingerprint) circumvents biometric fingerprint systems – and it is relatively easy to do. 

Which Multi factor Authentication System Should You Use? 

In general, the multifactor authentication system that you use should be the one you feel most comfortable with. Be sure that whatever system you settle on grants you continued access to your account. If it doesn’t, then you may find yourself locked out.

If you have cloud security concerns and would like us to audit your current cloud infrastructure, then please feel free to get in touch, we like to think we’re a straight talking and friendly team so are happy to answer questions at all levels. Please contact us via our contact form or if you prefer give us a call or drop us an email. Or if you’re on LinkedIn send us a connection request or ask the question on that platform.

There are a wide range of benefits of Cloud computing, for example:

1. Reduced IT costs – Although there is a cost involved in the initial switch to the Cloud, the ongoing cost savings it provides are a strong driver for most organisations. No more system upgrades, reduced hardware costs, reduced IT Support costs, reduced energy bills are all likely savings you will benefit from. With a pay as you go model you don’t have to buy what you’re not using.
2. Scalability – As well as the cost savings mentioned, scalability means you can rapidly react to increase or decrease the resources you need for business growth or seasonal increases and decreases. Many businesses have peak periods and the Cloud will allow you to deal with this far more effectively than fixed IT infrastructure.
3. Business Continuity – Vitally important to all organisations, ensuring business continuity means having essential backups in place to minimise any potential downtime caused by hardware or software failures. The Cloud allows you to create multiple backups, in many different locations, and to quickly switch between them if and when required.
4. Collaboration efficiency – As we have clearly seen during the recent crisis, the ability to collaborate efficiently while being located in many places, means the whole team requires access to the same updated files in a central location. Changes made in one place can be seen instantly by all. A Cloud based system provides this for you.
5. Flexibility – and alongside this ability to collaborate, your team can now work Anywhere, not just in one country but spread across the world if required. In addition they can move from home to office or another location and not lose access to key operating systems and data.
6. Automatic updates – Remember how big an event a system or application software update used to be? Entire departments taken offline while their software was updated. With the Cloud software updates are implemented without downtime and quite often without the users even knowing an update has taken place. This means important security patches for example can be implemented more or less instantly across your entire network.
7. Cyber Security – Every day there seems to be a new report of some kind of hacking taking place. Generally cyber security is more stringently managed by Cloud providers as they have a greater concentration of resources available to them than many businesses.
8. Sustainability – Although all IT equipment and systems come with some form of carbon footprint, Cloud based systems provide greater efficiencies in areas such as hardware by providing for example virtual servers rather than physical products. They also help in operating costs by reducing paper usage, reducing unnecessary travel and improving energy efficiency.

All organisations are different and there is no one size fits all solution, but an audit of your current systems would allow us to estimate cost savings for any part or full switch to the Cloud. We can look at your IT infrastructure now and discuss a pathway for accessing these significant benefits.

We can also advise on how to obtain a cost-effective HSCN connection if you need one and what the differences are between that and the old N3 system.

Please drop us a line and we will be happy to help.

Although all Cloud providers will have backup facilities, this doesn’t always mean they are up and running for your systems. Some hosting providers offer backups only as an optional service, they are not automatically applied and if they are missing, then it maybe your configuration that is at fault. So check carefully or select a provider that always provides them and doesn’t allow it as an optional extra.

We will provide (and also strongly recommend you implement) backups in multiple locations to guarantee business continuity in the event one system and/or set of data goes offline.

We also recommend frequent testing of every backup system. There are many cases when people have “assumed” something is being backed up, but when they have gone to retrieve it in an emergency, have found that actually the backup was not working.

Just walk in one day and test your system. Assume the worst and go looking for an important file or set of data in your backup and make sure it is there.

Then go and test the other backups too.

• Access to cloud-based care management and medicine management solutions helps to eliminate errors and make update-to-date records readily available to those who need them.

• Robust cloud provision 24/7 gives carers the information they need to manage patient care and even save lives at any time of the day or night, 365 days of the year.

• Access to data via the cloud means carers working from remote locations can provide emergency treatment.

• Where quality control and monitoring is required, for example by the CQC, applications accessed in the cloud provide an audit trail for compliance purposes.

• As with other industries, cyber security and data protection are critical for the care sector and properly implemented and managed cloud systems can support this.

A good cloud provider will work with any care organisation to understand their requirements and ensure that they can access critical applications without interruption and in a secure fashion.

Cloud providers generally have stricter measures in place than an SME can implement themselves in order to protect their client’s data. Cloud providers will also update this protection on a regular basis.

The backup processes with a competent cloud provider will also protect your company against potential data loss.

So, although the cloud is not inherently more (or less) secure than on-premises IT systems, cloud-based IT systems are generally more secure.

Now that most companies are working in the Cloud at least to some extent, it’s more important than ever to have Disaster Recovery and Backups in place. In the event of a catastrophic data loss, Disaster Recovery allows an organisation to restore their services with minimal disruption.

Without a Disaster Recovery plan and replication of systems and data at a different location, there is a genuine risk of significant data loss and serious consequences for the continuity of business operations. In the worst cases in can lead to business failure.

If you use a click and buy service from companies like Amazon, Azure or some others such as OVH, you need to be sure you know how to pin the infrastructure together to give yourself the best chance of recovery should a disaster happen.

If you are wondering what the differences are between the different technologies available we have written an article on AWS vs Azure vs Independent here…

A real-life example in 2021

A fire at a major datacentre resulted in many organisations losing data and caused major disruption to operations across both the UK and the world. Some companies had their data stored and backed up in the same facility, all original data and backups were then destroyed by the fire.

Lessons about data security and recovery were learned but in the most painful manner and sadly came too late for some organisations.

Good Cloud providers will work with you to ensure that you are not exposed to this unnecessary risk.

So really what is cloud computing? In simple terms it’s just a computer or computer services owned by someone else, running from a different location and being leased to you.  Despite many people’s understanding, it is not a new thing, it has been around for a long time. Webservers for example are technically cloud hosting servers and they have been in use for over 30 years now (Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989). In fact some web hosting companies now call themselves cloud hosting companies.

So Cloud is really just a broader term used to cover a collective of computer services delivered over the internet.

Now for a more detailed technical dive in

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power. Rather than using traditional on-premises hardware, Cloud utilises remote datacentres and virtual servers to deliver high performance computing resources over the internet for you to use.

Social networking applications like Facebook and Instagram together with document sharing services such as Dropbox, that we all use every day, are delivered using Cloud services.

Public, Private or Hybrid Cloud Services

Private Cloud systems are for Government agencies, those concerned about security of sensitive data or subject to specific compliance and regulatory requirements. In essence they are setup for a specific set of users or for a specific purpose and are not open for anyone else to join.

A Public Cloud still offers high security and performance but is generally being set up as a service that can be subscribed to, or purchased as a service by an organisation. They are generally easier to implement and to manage than a Private Cloud and will be less expensive.

Hybrid Cloud, as the name suggests, is a bit of both and is commonly implemented and may be used by organisations who require the security and compliance of Private Cloud but choose to use Public Cloud for some of their services with the cost and scalability benefits it offers.

Your Cloud provider should engage with you to understand your specific needs before making recommendations as to which combination is best for you.

What is Cloud? A formal definition of Cloud Computing from Wikipedia is:

“Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multiple locations, each location being a data center. Cloud computing relies on sharing of resources to achieve coherence and economies of scale, typically using a “pay-as-you-go” model which can help in reducing capital expenses but may also lead to unexpected operating expenses for unaware users.”

We are here to help if you have any more questions you would like to ask about cloud computing, cloud data backups, cloud security and so on.