What Your Current IT Provider Won’t Tell You
At LimeTech we like to think we’re ahead of the curve in IT architecture and planning. No one wants to live in the past, after all. But, old technology doesn’t get us or the businesses we serve anywhere! Here’s our angle: we don’t want to waste our clients’ time and hard-earned money just maintaining outdated, unreliable infrastructure.
Sure, for some companies the status quo may feel like the easiest path. Their current techie might even be encouraging this mindset. However, businesses who shy away from innovation can pay the price in down-time and billable service hours. Of course, your average IT service provider won’t tell you that, since they’re turning all those service hours into annual trips to Cancun.
We would rather help our clients plan and implement smart and innovative technology, so they can avoid unnecessary charges and take advantage of the best online tools available. OK, that might mean we’re not heading off to Cancun every year, but we’re not taking advantage of our clients, either.
From a smart entrepreneur’s perspective, an updated infrastructure is one of the most powerful ways to leverage your growth. We have extensive experience moving client services from old dilapidated systems to shiny new cloud services. If you’re a loyal reader of our blog, you know that we’re big fans of cloud services, so you can take your company remote. There’s more talk about cloud services on our blog, but in a nutshell, cloud services can be described as servers accessible through the internet.
So, we’re all here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the information capital of the world. One of the perks of being here is having access to a range of internet service providers. In fact, the last year, consumer and business internet services have become less expensive, faster, and more reliable. Just as an example, I have 50mbps/15mbps just at my home (Only $99/month.) That gives me the ability to download a whole DVD (4.7GB) in less than 6 minutes!
So, how can this help your business? Having the ability to quickly access data through your ultra high-speed internet connection opens a lot of doors for your business. You can eliminate a large percentage of your current in-house infrastructure (and much of the IT support that goes with it). When your information is in the cloud, you don’t need to worry about software updates, malware, data backups, replication, or aging hardware. You won’t need to replace that DNS server in three years, or that Exchange server in two.
What about downtime? We’ve thought about that, too. Many users worry about losing access to their data when their information is the cloud. This is a valid concern. There are still ways for you to temporarily lose access. For example, your ISP could go down, the service you’re using could experience downtime or maintenance time; such are the unfortunate facts of life online. So, how do we get around this?
We recommend services that allow you to replicate your data. This means that you can keep an up-to-date copy of your data onsite. Not only does this increase your data security, but it increases your data availability, which is a completely different animal indeed. By having a copy onsite, you can access those files, including the large files (videos, for example) much more quickly. But, you also get peace-of-mind at the office. Should your cloud service go offline temporarily, or your ISP decides to go down for a few minutes, you and your staff will still have access to all your data. It is, after all, a local copy. And for all you Type-A’s out there, you can still go to your IT closet and see a physical copy anytime.
So let’s recap.
- Upgrade your ISP to get as much bandwidth as you can justify
- Move the majority of your backbone services to the cloud
- Eliminate the need for overly frequent and expensive IT support
- Keep a local copy of your data for peace of mind, security, and availability
- Budget more easily, knowing that cloud service costs are predictable
- Access your data anywhere with an internet connection
- Eliminate VPN and remote service for employees
- Stop worrying about backups
In the end, we want this for all of our clients. We feel that if we can make your business more streamlined, cost-effective, secure, and available, then we’ve done our job. If this sounds like a solution you would like to implement for your business, give us a ring! We’ve love to help!
LimeTech is a creative tech company with a focus on innovation and adaptive change. We use technical know-how, design skills, and deep experience in entrepreneurship to help companies advance their business goals. Do you need IT planning, mobile app development, web design, or remote work solutions that will take your business to the next level? Get in touch today and find out what we can do for you.
