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Will we work from home forever?

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 21:09:15 +0000

In early March, Twitter and Facebook were among the first companies to close down offices and send staff to work from home—even before government agencies issued lockdown orders to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Fast-forward two months later, the two social media giants declared that most employees will at some point be able to telecommute permanently.

Large businesses have continued to extend their work-from-home policies. In many cases, they’re even making remote work a permanent fixture. Google, for example, initially told employees to work from home until June. Most recently, the search giant announced that workers could telecommute until July 2021.

It’s not just Silicon Valley tech companies. Most employees for investment banks like Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan are still working from home. Entertainment company ViacomCBS and music labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, and Warner Music Group have told workers to work remotely through the end of 2020.

Now that we’re about half a year into the remote work experiment, many employers have determined that the advantages of letting employees work from home may outweigh the negatives.

Herein lies the question: is remote work here to stay in the corporate world?

Most employees want to work from home

Studies show that 43% of those who previously commuted to work telecommuted during the height of the pandemic—and they enjoyed it. Remote workers say they are more productive and have better work-life balance since they don’t have a commute and can work flexibly. In fact, workers also report significantly higher levels of engagement when they work from home.

When the global health crisis is over, most employees still want the option to work from home at least part of the time. According to a survey by PwC, nearly three-quarters of employees (72%) said they’d like to telecommute at least twice a week after the pandemic is over, while nearly one-third (32%) want to work from home full time.

In a survey of 9,059 workers, 48% work from home during the pandemic and have a Workforce Happiness Index score of 75 out of 100, which is four points higher than employees who still have to go into their offices, according to a report by CNBC and SurveyMonkey. Remote workers are also more satisfied with their jobs: 57% of telecommuters say they are very satisfied versus 50% of non-remote workers who say they are very satisfied.

Companies want more remote work, too

As COVID-19 still lingers (and spikes), many are planning on making remote work permanent. In the short term, extending work from home keeps both employees and the company safe from safety-related events. In the long term, the flexibility of remote work promotes higher employee satisfaction and engagement, leading to significantly higher performance and retention. It's a win-win.

74% of CFOs surveyed by Gartner said at least some of their employees will be allowed to permanently work from home after the pandemic ends.

Not all workers can work from home

While remote work is something both leaders and employees want, it’s not an option to all workers. Only 37% of jobs can be done from home, according to University of Chicago economists.

For employees who can work remotely, 68% still want at some access to the office. Of those, 8% want to work full time in the office and 60% want to take a hybrid approach and be in the office a few times a week, according to PwC’s remote work survey.

The top reason people say they want to go into the office is to collaborate with other team members. Difficulty collaborating is a major reason people give for being unproductive while working from home (39%). They miss face-to-face interactions.

Others are simply more productive in the office because they have too many distractions at home. PwC found that 38% of remote workers feel balancing work with home duties, such as childcare, made them unproductive while working from home.

Coronavirus reshapes office working

When the health crisis is (finally) over, employees for some companies will return to their offices full time. Some will transition to 100% remote work. But most will likely take a hybrid approach, where employees work at home half the time and in the office half the time.

A permanent, flexible workweek has broad support among both executives and office workers, according to PwC’s latest remote work survey. While 83% of office employees want to work from home at least one day a week, more than half of employers (55%) anticipate that most of their workers will do so post-pandemic, the survey found.

For example, insurance company Nationwide is moving to a hybrid model. When the pandemic began, the company allowed 98% of its 27,000 employees to work from home and discovered that employee performance did not suffer.

As a result, Nationwide executives have announced plans to reduce 20 physical offices down to four main corporate offices, which will help the company save huge costs. Employees in the closed down locations will work from home permanently, while employees at the four remaining offices can split time between home and office, according to a magazine article.

Preparing for the remote future

Telecommuting has earned a permanent spot in the corporate world, and as we recover from the pandemic, more and more people will work from home in some way. That’s because not only is remote work better for safety purposes, but also fosters higher engagement and job satisfaction.

It’s also clear that many workers can’t work remotely. From restaurant staff to hardware engineers, many industries will return to normal after the pandemic. At least for now, most offices won’t go anywhere—but that can change in the near future.

Companies planning to expand remote work opportunities will need the right tools to maximize productivity amongst remote teams. While office workers can simply walk to a colleague’s desk to collaborate, remote teams don’t have the same convenience. It’s up to a company’s tools to facilitate communication and collaboration.

Unified communications solutions like RingCentral bundles team messaging, video conferencing, and cloud phone into a single platform in the cloud, allowing employees to access all of their communications from anywhere, on any device, and at any time. Employees can easily switch from messaging to voice or video calls with a single click, keeping collaboration as effortless as possible to start.

Speak to Ostratto today to find out how we keep businesses connected and productive.

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Written in collaboration with RingCentral©.

5 Lessons We’ve Learned About Remote Work

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 10:16:21 +0000

If one was to capture 2020 in a single word, “unprecedented” would be a fairly solid pick. The rippling effects of the coronavirus pandemic have transformed all aspects of life, with how we work being one of the most salient.

Case in point: at the start of the year, 4.7 million Americans (3.4% of the working population) worked remotely. Just three months later, at the height of lockdown, 34% of Americans who previously went into the office every day were now working from home.

The Overnight Shift to WFH

This unprecedented shift is remarkable for its incredible pace, not so much the direction. Even before the pandemic accelerated the move from the office, remote work was on an upward trajectory with 159% growth since 2005. It’s estimated that by 2025, the majority of the workforce (at least 70%) will work remotely for at least one full business week each month.

At all levels of the corporate hierarchy, from admins up to CEO's, 2020 has represented a massive work-from-home experiment. As much of a rollercoaster as these last few months have been, the rapid shift to WFH offers a unique glimpse into the future of work, and to better prepare companies and their employees for life after the office.

The overnight shift to WFH marks the first time many employees have had to find ongoing and sustainable ways to work together while apart - and as a whole, teams are not doing too badly: according to a global survey of office employees during the pandemic, 68% said they’ve been “very successful” working from home. Employees are equally satisfied with their work activity performance at home compared to the office, and 70% of leaders say their teams are performing the same or better from home.

The Future of Remote Work

These positive assessments of remote work are quite remarkable given that workplaces were forced to transform themselves overnight and without much warning. Sentiments about working from home have likely improved as teams adapted to working remotely and refined the processes and tools by which they do so.

Given that remote work is here to stay, it’s worth looking at the experiences of the last few months to evaluate what we’ve learned about remote work so far as well as find ways to make remote work even better moving forward.

Without further ado, here are five lessons we’ve learned about remote work in 2020.

1. It can be hard for employees to disconnect

Fear that employees would slack off was once many managers’ primary objection to working from home. As it turns out, the opposite is true. Since the start of lockdowns, employees at home averaged 48.5 more minutes of work every day.

But that may not be the win it appears to be. Nearly half of workers also report feeling more burnt out. To combat this, businesses need to make it a priority to help employees maintain work-life balance, even when the lines between home and office are blurred.

2. Projects can easily get lost or buried

It’s easy to take for granted the built-in ways with which employees share information in office settings. An ability to quickly touch base in-person (on the way back from making a coffee) helped employees prioritise their projects and provided a unified sense of momentum. When everyone works separately, projects can all too easily become lost or buried.

The solution lies in increased visibility. To prevent key projects from falling off, all people involved need ways to easily access and share key documents and information, as well as project management and collaboration tools that make it easy to track progress.

3. Remote employee silos happen without communication

Whether within a team or across departments, silos occur when colleagues don’t communicate with each other about what they’re working on. And when the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing, it can be costly for businesses.

Silos often result in duplicated work, blind spots, and other major business risks - and they’re more likely to occur when visibility is lacking, such as when everyone is working from home. Effective communication and collaboration, however, can help cure employee silos both formal (status meetings, progress reports) and informal (making it easy for workers to discuss work on the fly).

RingCentral offers a constant communication channel(s).

4. WFH improves many aspects of work but makes others harder

WFH does not have a universal effect on work - in fact, it improves some aspects of working while making others more of a challenge.

According to the Global Work from Home Experience Survey, homebound employees have a significantly easier time managing distractions and disruptions, and doing the sort of deep-thinking work that relies on this increased focus. But with fewer opportunities to interact organically, collaboration and a sense of connection drops off.

To get the most out of working from home, businesses need to find ways to continue to protect employees’ ability to work without distraction when it makes sense - but to also better enable seamless connectivity between workers and teams for tasks that require it.

5. It’s difficult (but possible) to recreate the organic collaboration that happens in the office

When it comes to teamwork when working from home, it’s not all bad news. Though remote work has been seen to fare worse than office environments when it comes to needs like getting timely information and collaborating with others, the results aren’t actually bad at all: six in 10 employees, a majority of workers, rate their ability to perform these activities from home positively.

This suggests that organic collaboration is possible when teams work remotely - but workers might need a little more help to do so. Setting up virtual “drop-in” office hours for managers, regular face-to-face team chats, and finding other ways to electronically recreate the easy communication that occurs in the workplace are key to fostering organic collaboration at home.

Communication and collaboration in the WFH era

What these lessons have in common is the theme of communication and collaboration. In a WFH world, the right tech becomes more than a communication tool - it’s the foundation upon which all work happens. This underscores the need for technology that’s accessible, seamless, and doesn’t create new challenges when it comes to helping employees connect with one another to get the job done.

A unified communications solution such as RingCentral helps to relieve many of the pain points employees encounter while they work from home. RingCentral combines team messaging, video conferencing, and cloud phone into a single platform, allowing employees to choose how, where, and when they want to collaborate. By breaking down the barriers to workplace communications, remote teams can master collaboration regardless of where they work and take productivity to new heights.

Combine it with our other favourite product, G Suite, and enjoy your new super powers.

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Datasheet

Written in collaboration with RingCentral©.

5 Reasons Everyone Should Have the RingCentral G Suite Add-on

Wed, 05 Aug 2020 11:19:39 +0000

When it comes to tech companies that have had a large impact on how we work smart, it’s hard to dispute that Google has been a strong contender. In the 22 years since the company was founded, Google has changed how people (and businesses) use the Internet in countless ways.

A suite of powerful tools that includes Gmail (email), shared calendars, documents, and other functions, Google’s offerings for business, collectively called G Suite, have had a massive upward trajectory. In the 4.5 years since November 2015 (back when G Suite was still called Google Apps for Work), paid user base has tripled to 6 million paid accounts. There’s a good chance you and other businesses your company does business with are among them.

But as with any tool you’re using to support collaboration and productivity, you may wonder if there are ways you can use it better in order to make communications more efficient.

Installing RingCentral’s G Suite Add-on is one way to accelerate the collaborative benefits you’re already gaining from using G Suite. Here are five ways the RingCentral G Suite Add-on will make your life easier.

The ultimate power couple.

1. Message or call colleagues directly from Gmail

Email has long been a primary communication tool within workplaces for many good reasons. To name a few, email creates a lasting record of what has been said, and can be sent from any connected device at any time. But email is not without limitation. In fact, email can be a source of hassle among businesses.

Emails are easily ignored. O ne survey found 60.8% of workers to be guilty of not responding to emails occasionally, often or always—and they’re rife with the potential for miscommunication due to lack of tone and context.

That’s why it's good practice to switch to a different medium of talking if you're not making progress after a bit of back and forth.

The RingCentral G Suite Add-on allows you to message or call colleagues directly from Gmail, making it easy to hop on a call or video chat without added coordination for those times when email conversation just isn’t cutting it.

2. Schedule meetings directly in Calendar

Scheduling meetings can be an absolute farce over email. First, you have to find an agreeable time, then create a calendar entry, and then figure out how to correctly export your meeting call-in details from your conferencing app to your invite. Get that last part wrong and you’ll also waste a ton of time when the meeting begins and everyone has trouble accessing it.

Installing the RingCentral G Suite Add-on eliminates this complexity altogether by allowing you to create a meeting, and fully populate your invite with details such as meeting ID and password, directly from Google Calendar with just a click. Sweet!

3. See your colleagues’ current status

In an office scenario, it’s easy to swing by someone’s desk for an impromptu chat when the need arises. When everyone’s working from home, it’s harder to gauge availability.

When your collaboration efforts require a deeper conversation—for example, an audio call or face-to-face video chat—you can lose powerful momentum simply trying to coordinate a time for that remote conversation to happen.

Though it may not be possible to use a closed door or other visual cues to determine the right time for on-the-fly chats in remote work scenarios, the RingCentral G Suite Add-on provides the next best thing: it allows you to instantly see when all of your RingCentral contacts are available, away, offline or in 'do not disturb' mode.

4. Start an email from a RingCentral contact card

The seamlessness of RingCentral and G Suite flows in two directions—and connecting the two also helps you to extend the usefulness of RingCentral. For example, sometimes email makes the most sense for communicating, such when you need to follow up with materials after a meeting. RingCentral’s G Suite Add-on simplifies this too by allowing you to send an email directly from a user’s RingCentral contact card.

5. View call history

While the number of options for communicating online is undoubtedly a boon for collaboration, it’s a nightmare for staying organised. Communicating across email, video, phone and SMS makes it difficult to remember what conversation occurred when, which can have impact on accountability (and efficiency!) RingCentral’s G Suite Add-on automatically creates a log of all your calls, making it easy to determine when that important conversation occurred.

Work Efficiently with RingCentral + G Suite

Collaboration tools are essential in the workplace—especially as more people work from home. But they also add complexity, as employees are forced to turn to multiple apps to meet their communication needs. RingCentral helps G Suite users get more out of their existing tools, and do so more efficiently, by connecting key functionalities so that users don’t have to change apps to communicate.

With the RingCentral app, the G Suite add-on creates a single record of information, combining team messaging, video conferencing, and cloud phone into a single platform for all workplace collaboration. As with all RingCentral apps and integrations, the G Suite add-on is free for all users.

You just need RingCentral and Google's G Suite to get started - both of which we can help you get started with today.

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Datasheet

Written in collaboration with RingCentral©.

Why you should Purchase G Suite from a Google Partner

Fri, 10 Jul 2020 18:01:16 +0000

These days, talk about digitalisation and ‘the cloud’ is constant and urgent. In our ever-globalising and ever-innovating world, the opportunities to harness cloud technology and use it to fuel growth are endless (just check out some of our previous blogs posts on cloud); but the idea of cloud technology in a business can also be daunting to manage.

Ostratto wants to help companies not only keep their heads above water during such a time of digitalisation, but unlock their maximum potential (and sail?). As a proud Google Cloud Partner and official reseller of Google Cloud services, we supply G Suite licenses at the same price as Google, but with additional services. Here are a few of the many reasons why taking advantage of a Google Partner can be a massive advantage for any business.

1. Same buck, more bang

By partnering with a Google Cloud Partner, you pay the same price for your licenses as you would buying directly from Google, but you get additional benefits, for free (yes free). The services are customisable for your business’s specific needs but they can include:

A security audit
A training workshop for your IT team
Implementation – existing business or new
User data migrations from existing systems
A combination package

Google Cloud Partners exist to act as a bridge between what can seem like a 'big scary Google' and a small business. We know our clients' businesses better than Google would ever be able to and that's a huge advantage for both the small business and Google. We identify the best support package that will not only improve how you utilise Google G Suite, but enhance all aspects of your business operations, keeping you efficient and ahead of your competition.

2. A friendly face

A businesses internal IT team may be able to blunder their way through a G Suite setup but what happens when things go wrong?

With a GCP Partner in your corner, the days of navigating the complexities of the cloud alone are over. In order to become a certified reseller, businesses must hold a rigorous set of prerequisites; these include passing a series of Google Cloud certifications and also having real-world proven experience with the products. To maintain our status we have to resit the certifications regularly and we're also expected to keep up-to-date with everything Google. When you partner with a qualified reseller like Ostratto, you really do gain access to years of experience with Google Cloud technologies and processes.

Having passed all the stringent prerequisites we then gain access to an advanced, prioritised level of support because it's expected we won't be asking the 'simple' questions. We can then use this level of support to get answers to the questions we haven't been asked before - all whilst the end customer only deals with one person whom they can trust to help.

Included in any basic resale of Google G Suite is a basic support package - perfect for the 'how do I do this' sorts of questions. Pair this with our support package and expect a truly empowered Google experience.

3. Put it on my tab please barman

One of the many benefits we offer to our clients is a single monthly bill. As we offer a range of various services and products we really focus on simplifying the recurring costs by billing one bill a month instead of a separate bill for each charge. It might seem a simple benefit but with the average medium-sized business spending $20,000 per month on SaaS tools, being able to consolidate multiple vendor bills into one predictable, itemised payment makes cashflow just a tad more manageable.

When you purchase GCP services through Ostratto, you can enjoy simple automatic card payments with pro-rata'd user costs automatically applied for you. You can then view your previous and current payments on our billing portal for your Google services along with any other services you receive from us. I can already see your billing department thanking you.

4. Value, maximised

Nobody likes to waste time or money. When businesses use the expertise of a GCP reselling partner like Ostratto, they can be confident that they’re getting the most value out of Google Cloud products. We help businesses identify and eliminate inefficiencies in their workloads, giving them more time to focus on using Google Cloud tech to drive direct value for their business.

There’s also no need to allocate extra time and staffing to train a new team member on the ins and outs of the cloud - most of your team have probably already used Google's services and anyway, that’s what we’re here for.

Passing comments

These are the most obvious reasons to purchase via a GCP partner like us but there are many more. If you’re interested in learning more about how Ostratto can make your cloud journey easier, we’d be happy to talk.

Related resources

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COVID-19: Remote-working Checklist

Sat, 06 Jun 2020 07:00:00 +0000

Many if not most organisations have already crossed the 'working from home' bridge either successfully or terribly.

If you’re on an IT team, you’re probably used to preparing laptops for staff to use remotely, and setting up mobile phones with access to company data.

But global concerns over the current coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak, and the need to keep at-risk staff away from the office, means that lots of companies may soon and suddenly end up with lots more staff working from home indefinitely. For a business that has already deployed a remote-working strategy, this process is probably pretty familiar. For the businesses that haven't, it can be a logistical, security and financial nightmare.

Even for businesses that are no stranger to remote-working it's still a very different situation. If you have colleagues who need to work from home specifically to stay away from the office, you can no longer use the tried-and-tested approach of getting them to come in once to collect their new laptop and phone, and to receive the on-site training that you hope will make them an effective teleworker. You may end up needing to set remote users up from scratch, entirely remotely, and that might be something you’ve not done a lot of in the past.

I can imagine you and your business are very busy so without further wait - here are our five tips for working from home effectively and safely.

1. Make sure your users have everything they need

It's without a doubt the most important. Not only does it ensure your users are happy (productive) remote-workers, it means they don't revert to finding their own uncontrolled or 'shadow' solutions to their problems (we will come to shadow solutions in a minute or so).

If users genuinely can’t do their job without access to server X or to system Y, then there’s no point in sending them off to work from home without access to X and Y.

Make sure you have got your chosen remote access solution working reliably first – force it on yourself! – before expecting your users to adopt it.

If there are any differences between what they might be used to and what they are going to get, explain the difference clearly and don’t leave them to find that out on their own. They’ll not only be annoyed, but will probably also try to make up their own tricks for bypassing the problem, such as asking colleagues to upload files to private accounts instead of using a storage system they thought they would have had access to remotely.

If you’re the user, try to be understanding if there are things you used to be able do in the office that you have to manage without at home.

This is an excellent opportunity to really evaluate what software you are using in your business and if there are a lot of business-critical tasks you aren't able to complete because you aren't in the office then I hate to break it to you - it's not 1996 anymore! It's 2020 and the cloud is here in a big way.

To see how cloud technology can empower your business today, check out our post on our favourite remote-working software.

2. Make sure you can see what your users are doing

Don’t just leave your users to their own devices (literally or figuratively).

If you’ve set up automatic updating for them, make sure you also have a way to check that it’s working, and be prepared to spend time online helping them fix things if they go wrong. If any of their systems or software has produced warnings or errors that you know they will have seen, make sure you review those warnings too, and let your users know what they mean and what you expect them to do about any issues that may arise.

Don’t patronise your users, because no one likes that; but don’t leave them to fend for themselves either – show them a bit of cybersecurity love and you are very likely to find that they repay it.

3. Make sure they have somewhere to report security issues

If you haven’t already, set up an easily remembered email address, such as security@yourcompany.com, where users can report security issues quickly and easily.

Remember that a lot of cyberattacks succeed because the crooks try over and over again until one user makes an innocent mistake – so if the first person to see a new threat has somewhere to report it where they know they won’t be judged or criticised (or, worse still, ignored), they’ll end up helping everyone else.

Teach your users – in fact, this goes for office-based staff as well as remote-workers – only to reach out to you for cybersecurity assistance by using the email address or phone number you gave them. (Consider snail-mailing them a card or a sticker with the details printed on it.)

If they never make contact using links or phone numbers supplied by email, they they are very much less likely to get scammed or phished.

4. Keep shadow IT out of the shadow

Shadow IT is where non-IT staff find their own ways of solving technical problems, for convenience or speed. If you have colleagues who are used to working together in the office, but who end up flung apart and unable to meet up, it’s quite likely that they might come up with their own ways of collaborating online – using tools they’ve never tried before.

Sometimes, you might even be happy for them to do this, if it’s a cheap and happy way of boosting team dynamics. For example, they might open an account with an online white-boarding service – perhaps even one you trust perfectly well – on their own payment card and plan to claim it back later.

The first risk everyone thinks about in cases like this is, “What if they make a security blunder or leak data they shouldn’t?”

But there’s another problem that lots of companies forget about, namely: what if, instead of being a security disaster, it’s a conspicuous success? A temporary solution put in place to deal with a public health issue might turn into an important part of the company’s online presence and so make sure you know whose credit card it’s charged to, and make sure you can get access to the account if the person who originally created it forgets the password, or cancels their card.

So-called “shadow IT” isn’t just a risk if it goes wrong – it can turn into a complicated liability if it goes right!

Closing comments

Most of all, if you and your users suddenly need to get into remote-working, be prepared to meet each other half way.

For example, if you’re the user, and your IT team suddenly insists that you start using a password manager and 2FA (those second-factor login codes you have to type in every time) then just say “Sure,” even if you hate 2FA and have avoided it in your personal life because you find it inconvenient.

Likewise if you’re the IT admin, don’t ignore your users, even if they ask questions you think they should know the answer to by now, or if they ask for something you’ve already said No to, because it might very well be that they’re asking because you didn’t explain clearly the first time, or because the feature they need really is important to doing their job properly.

We’re living in tricky times, so try not to let matters of public health cause the sort of friction that gets in the way of doing cybersecurity properly. And if you need assistance with any of this, join our partners in empowering their businesses with our intelligent solutions.

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Why We Love G Suite

Tue, 02 Jun 2020 21:00:28 +0000

We use (and provide) a multitude of different SaaS products here at Ostratto to keep everything running smoothly behind the scenes and to improve the productivity of the business. Although I have a lot of weird love for all of the services we use, my favourite and one I couldn't live without is G Suite.

Yes one could say we are albeit biased but I'm not afraid to come right out and say it’s by far the best all-in-one business services solution on the market right now. It's affordable, easy to use and super powerful.

Today we’ll dive into the unparalleled benefits of G Suite, why we use it and recommend it to all of our partners, and how it compares to other similar solutions on the market.

Contents

What is G Suite?

Gmail

Calendar

Drive

Docs, Sheets and Slides

Google Meet

Admin

Unparalleled Benefits of G Suite

Familiarity

Uptime

Affordability

Security

How to Move to G Suite

Let Ostratto do it for you

Other options

What is G Suite?

G Suite is Google’s suite of intelligent apps. This was formerly known as Google Apps, till it was re-branded in late 2016. We primarily recommend G Suite for clients that are needing email hosting for their business. However, G Suite is much more than just email. It also includes a variety of apps and features that can come in quite handy. In fact, you’re probably already using or are familiar with some of them.

G Suite has three different plans you can purchase - Basic, Business and Enterprise. We utilise the Business G Suite plan at Ostratto. This starts at just £9.20/user/month. For many of you, the basic plan is probably all you’ll ever need and that starts at £4.60/user/month. We have a much fuller breakdown of the individual G Suite system features on our product pages but here's a quick summary of our favourite features.

Gmail

According to a Litmus study, Gmail leads the way as the most popular email client, with a whopping 27.8% of the market share based on open rates. It’s no surprise as Gmail has been around since 2004 and now boasts over 1.2 billion users. One of the best things about G Suite is you basically get an enhanced ad-free version of the online email client you’re probably already using.

G Suite essentially allows your employees to have their own Gmail accounts with email addresses with your business domain name (example: tim@yourbusiness.co.uk). A very small business with one or two users might be able to get away with free Gmail accounts and some alias forwarding rules. But once you start hiring two or three employees, you’ll find yourself needing accounts that can be managed separately. It's the difference between looking like a new small business, or established and professional - we even wrote about it a couple blog posts back.

Calendar

I absolutely could not live without a calendar. Knowing when I have a client call or whether I have an important project milestone upcoming is totally essential. Google Calendar is a feature-packed calendar provided as part of G Suite and it will help you keep your schedule organised.

One of the great things about using Google Calendar in G Suite is the ability to create multiple calendars that are accessible to everyone in your business (or just a few users). For example, you might want a group calendar for events like team holidays and regular meetings. Having all your employees attached to the same business makes tasks like these even easier when compared to the free Google Calendar version.

One of the other cool features you get with Google Calendar once you go to the Business tier and upwards, is the ability to add conference calling features to an event. No messing around in separate products, you simply add video conferencing to the event and all attendees get an invite with join in details as well as a voice dial-in number if they aren't going to make the video call.

Google Drive

Drive allows you to allows you to store, access and share your files in one secure place. You then have easy access to them from any device. G Suite Basic plans come with 30GB of storage for every employee. G Suite’s Business and Enterprise editions provide unlimited storage so you will always have enough space for your files. We think that's pretty cool and I really have put it to the test with over 8TB and counting in a shared drive (we love movies what can I say).

If you haven’t used Google Drive before, one of the best things I like about it is the amazing search functionality. I mean it does make sense - Google do know a thing or two about search technology. No more rummaging around deep in folders, you can easily find what you’re looking for, no matter how disorganised you are.

Shared Drives are also very neat. You can create shared drives for projects, departments or teams so that it's easier to find that shared information with sharing multiple folders with each other. It also means that the classic business situation of a user leaving the company and nobody being able to access their shared important files. You can choose certain levels of access for team members - view, edit or manager roles provide set permission levels.

Docs, Sheets and Slides

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides pretty much speak for themselves. Fully fledged document processing, a spreadsheet tool and presentation suite all reside directly in the G Suite system without any software downloads needed. Should your internet connection not be available, you can still work offline and your changes are automatically synced when you connect back to the world.

Import documents to make them instantly editable, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF files (.docx, .doc, .pdf, .rtf, .txt, xlsx, .csv, .html, .ods). You can even collaborate and comment on Microsoft Office files without it having to automatically convert to Google’s format - great when you are working with Microsoft Office-based customers.

You can also export to common third-party formats which makes it easy to collaborate with other individuals or companies and send files back and forth, without ever needing to install or purchase additional software.

One of the best features of Google Work Suite is the real-time commenting and unlimited versions. Previous versions are kept indefinitely and they don’t count toward your storage. This makes it super easy to track changes made to a document or undo a mistake. Sharing documents with your coworkers or other individuals is also incredibly easy.

Google Meet

What better way to meet a new client instantly than jumping on a video call. Google Meet provides an easy and secure way to handle video calling without leaving your business system. All versions of G Suite, Basic, Business and Enterprise provide the product with 100, 150 and 250 participant limits respectively - generally way more than we have ever needed.

Participants can also share screen content, or when they are using Google Chrome, a single browser tab, which is pretty neat when you need to show somebody something. The Enterprise version also allows users to record their meetings to re-watch.

Calls are crisp, reliable and secure - our key desirables in any communication product ultimately.

Google Admin

The Admin console for G Suite is the like mission-control. It lets business owners easily manage everything from one single place. Do everything from adding new users and groups, configuring business apps, manage devices, configure security settings (like 2-factor authentication) and add new custom domains for your business which can be used for Gmail.

Now with the admin console being the admin console, only administrators can access the wealth of configuration available. Users can be provided different administrative levels via roles, so that only the relevant parts of the admin console can be access by users.

Unparalleled Benefits of G Suite

Although there are alternatives - Microsoft 365 and Zoho to name a few - there are some unparalleled benefits to G Suite which we are yet to see overcome. Here's a few.

Familiarity

One of the greatest benefits of going with G Suite for your business is that most of your employees are probably already used to using products like Gmail for email and Google Docs. This makes the transition much easier for your business and ensures you don’t have to waste time explaining to new hires how to utilise company tools; unlike Zoho or Office 365 where there might be more explanation needed.

G Suite also has the best compatibility on mobile devices compared to any other email provider. It works pretty much everywhere which certainly saves time troubleshooting with your users.

Uptime

When it comes to uptime, Google is one of the best when it comes to reliability. If you want to dig into the technical details, G Suite offers a 99.9% Service Level Agreement (SLA) for covered services, and in recent years they’ve actually exceeded that. Also due to the fact that email is such an important part of every business, G Suite has no scheduled downtime or maintenance windows. All of their data centres are built with redundant infrastructure.

But just like any service, they can never be up 100% of the time. Therefore, you can always bookmark the G Suite status dashboard or follow us on our social platforms for updates on all of their products.

It's Extremely Affordable

There are other providers out there that are cheaper, such as Zoho, and don't get us wrong, Zoho offer a truly excellent service too. However, just as we often advise our partners - certain technical aspects of your business you should absolutely not cheap out on. Your business email is one of those areas. Having an email host that you can rely on can save you money down the road.

Here’s a look at G Suite’s pricing and what’s included in each plan - you can drill further down into this here, but here's a brief overview:

For everything that G Suite includes - this really is a steal.

G Suite is secure, really secure

When it comes to security, Google really don't play around. The product is built on some of the most secure infrastructure on earth. It’s trusted by some of the biggest companies in the world; such as HP, Verizon, Whirlpool, and Salesforce. As Google says, they are leading with a “security-first mindset.” They have industry-leading knowledge and expertise backing each and every one of their products, including G Suite. They have a very thorough white-paper which covers some of the measures they take which you can read here.

Some of their certifications:

How to Move to G Suite

If you have read up to this point and you are keen to get started with G Suite then that's awesome - you are making a good decision. Get ready to work smarter.

We are partnered with G Suite. This means we provide setup services for our clients using our wealth of knowledge on the product. We then offer support plans after the initial commission.

There are a few options of migration depending on where you are coming from and how technically versed you are.

Let Ostratto do it for you

The best way to move over to G Suite is to let us handle it for you. We have handled many migrations from various legacy systems with ease and we can help you today. Don't make the mistake of handling the migration yourself and losing years of important business data - it's simply not worth it.

For a quick quote or for more details on our migration and setup services just get in touch, I'm excited to chat with you and I'll try not to nerd out too hard.

Other Options

That being said, Google have provided extensive documentation on migration methods from various sources and if you are feeling technically confident then be sure to check out their guides:

In Closing

So there we are, a quick overview of why we go on about G Suite so much. Hopefully it's been of use to you and provided a half-decent run-through for you. If you have any questions about the product or if you want to get started today, just holla at us.

Get Started with G Suite

Jargon Busting: SEO

Mon, 17 Feb 2020 08:25:55 +0000

SEO. It's complex stuff. Google as an example change their algorithms almost every day, tweaking the technology so that users of the service get to the pages they need without having to work hard for it. There is much to learn - we are still from masters of it.

The following glossary should at least give you a running start. It covers the most common words, acronyms, and phrases you may come across. As ever, if you have any questions please reach out.

301 Redirects

Redirection is the process of forwarding one URL to a different URL. A redirect is a way to send both users and search engines to a different URL from the one they originally requested. The three most commonly used redirects are 301, 302, and Meta Refresh.

Backlinks

Backlinks (also known as 'inbound links', 'incoming links' or 'one way links') are links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks 'votes' for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings.

404 Error Pages

The website hosting server will typically generate a "404 Not Found" web page when a user attempts to follow a broken or dead link; hence the 404 error is one of the most recognizable errors encountered on the World Wide Web.

Schema Markup

Schema.org (often called Schema) is a semantic vocabulary of tags (or microdata) that you can add to you the HTML of your website to improve the way search engines read and represent your page in SERPs.

Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). A Domain Authority score ranges from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.

Page Authority

Page Authority (PA) is a score developed by Moz that predicts how well a specific page will rank on search engine result pages (SERP). Page Authority scores range from one to 100, with higher scores corresponding to a greater ability to rank.

Anchor Text

Anchor Text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. In modern browsers, it is often blue and/or underlined, such as this link to the Ostratto homepage.

Alt Text

Alt text (alternative text), also known as "alt attributes", “alt descriptions", or technically incorrectly as "alt tags,” are used within an HTML code to describe the appearance and function of an image on a page.

Canonical Tags

A canonical tag (aka "rel canonical") is a way of telling search engines that a specific URL represents the master copy of a page. Using the canonical tag prevents problems caused by identical or "duplicate" content appearing on multiple URLs. Practically speaking, the canonical tag tells search engines which version of a URL you want to appear in search results.

Link Equity

Link equity, once colloquially referred to as "link juice," is a search engine ranking factor based on the idea that certain links pass value and authority from one page to another. This value is dependent on a number of factors, such as the linking page's authority, topical relevance, HTTP status, and more.

Alt Text

Canonical Tags

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Free email: It's not good business

Thu, 26 Dec 2019 17:42:28 +0000

@gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @live.com, all touted as FREE email addresses. Great for a new business that wants to keep costs down right? Let's have a look at why your business should stay clear of a free email address.

With email communications being a key tool for your business, it’s important to make sure that your credibility surrounds that communication and that your email address is one that speaks 'professionalism'. After all, it’s for business.

When people see your Email address, if you have a Yahoo or Gmail account, you may be giving the impression that you are not as serious about your business as you should be. It's all about the perception, especially for a small business. Free email addresses definitely serve a purpose but when it comes to your business, you should steer clear of anything that takes away from your credibility and potentially detracts from your professional reputation.

"It's all about the perception, especially for a small business."

Let's dig into what exactly is 'wrong' about using a free email service for your business. All of these points are assumptions on the customers behalf and for the most part theoretical.

It's unprofessional

When people see an email account that is from a free service, they may assume that you are reluctant to spend money and therefore the products and services that you offer may not be of the highest quality. How people perceive you and your business is critical to the success of your business. Having a free email address may make those who are considering doing business with you think twice before they enter into a relationship with you. As easy way to remedy this is by registering your business domain name so that can have business emails. Our partners have confirmed to us that since using professional email addresses they have been treated as a much more established business than they did before. You may see that this will open up a large amount of new business opportunities for you and your business - and at such a small cost.

No domain? No business investment

Registering your domain name is very inexpensive and so if you don’t register yours, it will be seen as a direct lack of investment into the business. Customers may wonder where else money has been saved on your business. This of course also spreads to the perception that your products or services are of inferior quality.

Are you here to stay?

So you aren't investing in one of the most inexpensive purchases a business can make and so the question may come up in the minds of potential clients as to whether your business will actually be around in the long term.

The people with whom you do business need to totally trust that you will always work with their best interest in mind. It needs to be seen that you are willing to invest their hard-earned money so they the customer can trust that your business will be around for a very long time. Having a legitimate business email address and email system will help them to feel comfortable with that and it's a very evident investment into your business.

'Free' means 'No technical support'

When you are using a free email service, and your email goes down, to use a popular phrase "Who You Gonna Call?!”

Well Google or Microsoft won’t be answering your phone call and millions of others when they are having problems. They would go out of business if they did that for free. With a true email hosting service, you will very often get technical support (you certainly would with us). So, if your email service stops working at that critical time, and remember in running a business communication is a top priority - you will be able to get the help you need.

It's not for a business

Although a free email address might be enough for your business now, it will definitely not be in time. The free email services offer a consumer-grade set of products and so the clever features offered in a business-standard email platform are immediately missed out on. Basic features such as mailbox sharing (instead of all using the same set of logins, read: major security risk) or even email deliverability authentication (this is a measure to ensure that your emails are actually delivered to your recipients and not to their spam folder).

Your business services need to be able to scale actively with your business success. You don't need the stress, and potential downtime, of having to change email services when you get busy - trust us.

You are missing out

Using your domain name in your email address is similar to how product placement is used in the movies to get people to remember that product even after the movie is over.

When you use your business domain name in your email communications, you are continually presenting your company name over and over again. It’s like free marketing. And if you don’t take this opportunity to market your own business, and you use a free email service like Gmail, you are essentially putting a sign for somebody else’s business over your front door. In other words, you are advertising for Gmail and not your own business. Granted Google appreciates the free advertising and they do offer some fantastic products, but you shouldn’t be doing that for Google. They have a much larger advertising budget than you likely do!

If your email has your domain name in the email address, you are cementing the name of your company into your potential customer’s mind. Do this over and over again and the customer will remember your company before any other company when they are about to buy your products or services.

A custom domain is a pretty cheap billboard...

In Closing

It's worth spending a small amount of money so that you can register your domain and so that the perception that other people have of your business is one of credibility and trustworthiness.

It is also important to remember that nothing in life is really free. You may not always know when you sign up what the price is going to be. Generally the cost of a business email system is a lot less than the cost of a customer facing issues anywhere from deliverability problems to customer service problems (because your email has gone to your customers spam folder). The relationships that you share with your clients should not be short ones but should endure for a very long time - invest in your business email system to show that you will be around for a long time.

To find out more and to get started with professional email addresses, let's chat, we're all ears.

How secure is your data in the cloud?

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 16:23:44 +0000

Cloud-based solutions are increasingly in business demand around the world. These solutions include everything from secure data storage to e ntire business processes. As we move more to cloud-oriented solutions, a new challenge comes into play: the 'security' of cloud storage. The question arises of where data is stored and more importantly, who has access to it. Here-lies cloud storage security - security measures that are implemented to protect data with the same (or often higher) level of sensitivity as would exist in an on-premise data storage solution.

Sounds great (yawn). Let's see what this actually means in real terms for your business data.

A recap on 'the cloud'

As we've covered before, cloud-based storage is an outsourced solution for storing data. Instead of saving data onto local hard drives, users store data on internet-connected servers. Datacentre's then provide a home for these servers to keep the data safe and secure to access. Businesses turn to cloud storage solutions to solve a variety of problems. Small businesses use the cloud to cut costs and big businesses use the cloud to distribute data more efficiently across the world. Any time you access files stored remotely, you are accessing a cloud - in simple terms anyway.

Email services are a prime example. Most email users don’t bother saving emails to their devices because those devices are connected to the internet most of the time.

Types of Cloud: Public, Private, Hybrid

There are three types of cloud solutions, each offering a unique combination of advantages and drawbacks:

Public Cloud: These services offer accessibility and security. This security is best suited for unstructured data, like files in folders. Most users don’t get a great deal of customised attention from public cloud providers unless you use more business-oriented options. This is your Google Drives and your Dropboxes. This option is affordable.
Private Cloud: Private cloud hosting services are on-premise solutions. Users assert unlimited control over the system. Private cloud storage is more expensive and more old-fashioned. This is because the owner manages and maintains the physical hardware.
Hybrid Cloud: Many companies choose to keep high-volume files on the public cloud and sensitive data on a private cloud. This hybrid approach strikes a balance between affordability and customisation.

The big question: how secure is cloud storage?

All files stored on secure cloud servers benefit from an enhanced level of security. The security credential most users are familiar with is the password. Cloud storage security vendors secure data using other means often not implemented in on-premise solutions such as:

Advanced Firewalls: Firewalls inspect traveling data packets (moving data). Simple ones only examine the source and destination. Advanced firewalls verify packet content integrity (what the data means). Clever algorithms then map the packet contents to known security threats and say yay or nay to data entering or exiting the cloud. A bit like a bouncer at your local club saying yes or no to guests based on previous experiences of having them trying to do snow angels on the dance-floor. You thought people would forget?
Intrusion Detection: Online secure storage can serve many users at the same time and successful cloud security systems rely on identifying when someone tries to break into the system, both at the door and when inside. Multiple levels of detection ensure cloud vendors can even stop intruders who break past the network’s initial defences. To continue our club analogy, these are your bouncers inside the club monitoring the guests.
Event Logging: Event logs help security analysts understand threats. Analysts use this data to build a narrative concerning network events. This helps them predict and prevent security breaches based on known patterns of behavior. For example, bouncers predict incidents based on experience from other nights in the club.
Internal Firewalls: Not all accounts should have complete access to data stored in the cloud. Limiting secure cloud access through internal firewalls boosts security. This ensures that even a compromised account cannot gain full access. Although you've been permitted access to the club, you don't get into VIP unless you are known and trusted.
Encryption: Encryption keeps data safe from unauthorized users. If an attacker steals an encrypted file, access is denied without finding a secret key which will unlock the file and reveal the data contents. The data is worthless to anyone who does not have the key. Just the same as if you have no ID, you don't get into the club. Admittedly this analogy is running out of ground...
Physical Security: Cloud data centers are highly secure. Certified data centers have 24-hour monitoring, biometric security and sometimes armed guards. These places are more secure than almost all on-site data centers.

Remember

For a security system to be complete, users must adhere to a security awareness training program. Even the most advanced security system cannot compensate for negligent users.

Cloud Data Security Risks

Security breaches are rarely caused by poor cloud data protection. More often than not, improving user security will make cloud storage more secure. Many factors contribute to user security in the cloud storage system, most of which focus on employee training:

Authentication: Weak passwords are the most common enterprise security vulnerability and it's not uncommon for users to write their passwords down. Multi-factor authentication can solve this problem. (MFA for next Prime Minister!)
Awareness: In the modern office every job is a cyber-security job. Employees must know why security is so important and be trained in security awareness. Users must know how criminals may approach a cyber-attack - this leads us onto the next point.
Phishing Protection: Phishing scams remain the most common cyber attack vector. These attacks attempt to compromise user emails and passwords by 'fishing' their data. Ever seen that email 'your money has been locked, enter your details to unlock'? That's phishing. Using this data, attackers can move through business systems to obtain access to more sensitive files.
Breach Drills: Simulating data breaches can help employees identify and prevent phishing attacks. Users can also improve response times when real breaches occur. This establishes protocols for handling suspicious activity and also provides an apt time to give feedback to users on their security awareness.
Measurement: The results of data breach drills must inform future performance. Practice only makes perfect if analysts measure the results and find ways to improve upon them. Quantify the results of simulation drills and employee training to maximize the security of cloud storage.

Educate Your Employees

Employee education helps enterprises successfully protect cloud data. Employee users often do not know how cloud computing works. Explain cloud storage security to your employees by answering the most commonly asked questions:

Where Is the Cloud Located? Cloud storage data is located in remote data centers. These can be anywhere on the planet (sometimes even underwater). Cloud vendors often store the same data in multiple places. This is called redundancy.
How is Cloud Storage Different from Local Storage? Cloud vendors use the internet to transfer data from a secure data center to users. Cloud storage data is available everywhere.
How Much Data Can the Cloud Store? Storage in the cloud is exponentially large, almost unlimited to us. In a 2013 study it was predicted that over 1 Exabyte of cloud storage is in use - this is over 1,073,741,824 Gb's of data or if written, 50,000 trees made into paper and printed. Local drive space is limited. Bandwidth – the amount of data a network can transmit per second – is usually the limiting factor.A high-volume and low-bandwidth cloud service would run too slowly for meaningful work.
Does The Cloud Save Money? Most companies invest in cloud storage to save money compared to on-site storage. Improved connectivity cuts costs. Cloud services can also save business money in disaster recovery situations.
Is the Cloud Secure and Private? Professional cloud storage comes with state-of-the-art security. Users must follow the vendor’s security guidelines. Negligent use can compromise even the best protection.

Cloud Storage Security Best Practices

Cloud storage providers store files redundantly. This means copying files to different physical servers placed far away from one another. In a traditional office a disaster such as a fire would result in lost data and consequently lost business. In the modern office this data is stored in the cloud, copied to multiple data centers located throughout the region. A modern office would be able to recover overnight.

Redundancy makes cloud storage security platforms far less likely to occur. Cloud storage vendors measure hard drive failure and compensate for them through redundancy. Even without redundant files, only a small percentage of cloud vendor hard drives fail. These companies rely on storage for their entire income and so take every precaution to ensure users’ data remains safe.

This makes cloud storage an excellent option for securing data against cyber-crime. With a properly configured cloud solution in place, even ransomware poses very little threat. Simply wipe the infected computers and start fresh, all whilst data remains safe in the cloud.

In closing: It's time to invest in Cloud Storage Security
Businesses who invest in enterprise cloud storage need qualified cloud maintenance and management expertise. As a reputable managed security services provider, Ostratto can provide a full evaluation of your data storage and security needs today - just get in touch.

Otherwise, thanks for reading and chow for now.

Why should my business exist in the cloud?

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 11:08:54 +0000

'The cloud' - what is it, where is it and what can it do for your business.

Like the name suggests, the idea of the cloud feels lofty and hard to grasp. Simply put, cloud computing is the practice of using a network hosted on the Internet, or 'the cloud', to store, manage, and process data. This means you won’t have to maintain or own any hosting equipment locally as you pay someone else for this. Often the label of 'Cloud' is interchanged in different contexts but the basic premise is that instead of systems operating on your business premises, they are operating in a managed data centre for you.

With more than three quarters of companies making use of cloud computing, you’re probably no stranger to the idea. But have you considered moving your business IT to the cloud?

The Good

Cost

Cloud computing works on a pay-as-you-go basis. You only pay for what you use, similar to a utility bill. This eliminates the need to spend money on the expensive (and ever-changing) hardware that comes with hosting on a server. Instead of worrying about servers, you’ll be able to focus on your business.

Quick Accessibility

Many cloud computing services come on-demand, so increasing computing resources can happen efficiently. No more complaints from your users that the X drive is down, or that the business-critical services are running slow.

Scalability

This is a big one. With cloud computing, you have the ability to scale 'elastically'. In other words, your website or app receives the right amount of resources (bandwidth, storage, etc.) when it needs them. And when it's time to take on more employees as your business grows - there's no concerns whether your infrastructure can handle the additional users. Also - when your business decides it's time to move into a larger building - no more weeks of planning on how servers and equipment are going to be moved. It all moves with you without lifting a finger!

Optimal Performance

Most cloud computing services providers (definitely Google) run through secure local data centers that are maintained around the clock, to a much higher standard that is generally possible when IT is done in-house.

Easily Shared

The easy accessibility that comes with the cloud computing makes it very simple to share information across the globe. Data replication technologies are used to ensure that a user is always retrieving the closest copy of any data, from anywhere in the world.

This all happens automatically, with no need to configure peer optimisation of any sort.

Reliability

In cloud computing, data backups occur routinely making disaster recovery easy and inexpensive. With the before-mentioned data replication technology, data can be found on multiple devices at redundant sites on a cloud provider’s network.

Often providers guarantee 99.9% uptime - a number often not achievable in conventional business IT.

The not so good

Security & Privacy

Although cloud service providers often implement high security standards and industry certifications, storing data and important files on external service providers can introduce risks. Any discussion involving data must address security and privacy, especially when it comes to managing sensitive data. We must not forget what happened at Code Space and the hacking of their AWS EC2 console, which led to data deletion and the eventual shutdown of the company. Their dependence on remote cloud-based infrastructure meant taking on the risks of outsourcing everything.

Of course, any cloud service provider is expected to manage and safeguard the underlying hardware infrastructure of a deployment. However, your responsibilities lie in the realm of user access management, and it’s up to you to carefully weigh all the risk scenarios.

Though recent breaches of credit card data and user login credentials are still fresh in the minds of the public, steps have been taken to ensure the safety of data. One such example is the General Data Protection Rule (GDPR), which was enacted in the European Union to provide users more control over their data. Nonetheless, you still need to be aware of your responsibilities and follow best practices.

Vulnerability to attack

In cloud computing, every component is online, which exposes potential vulnerabilities. Even the best teams suffer severe attacks and security breaches from time to time. Since cloud computing is built as a public service, it’s easy to run before you learn to walk. After all, no one at a cloud vendor checks your administration skills before granting you an account: all it takes to get started is generally a valid credit card. This is why training on your business system users is vital.

Limited control and flexibility

Since the cloud infrastructure is entirely owned, managed, and monitored by the service provider, control is inherently removed from the customer.

To varying degrees (depending on the particular service), cloud users may find they have less control over the function and execution of services within a cloud-hosted infrastructure. A cloud provider’s end-user license agreement (EULA) and management policies might impose limits on what customers can do with their deployments.

Customers retain control of their applications, data, and services but may not have the same level of control over their back-end infrastructure, at least, often not to the same level of control provided with an on-premise system.

Vendor lock-in

Vendor lock-in is another perceived disadvantage of cloud computing. Easy switching between cloud services is a service that hasn’t yet completely evolved, and organizations may find it difficult to migrate their services from one vendor to another. Differences between vendor platforms may create difficulties in migrating from one cloud platform to another, which could equate to additional costs and configuration complexities. Gaps or compromises made during migration could also expose your data to additional security and privacy vulnerabilities.

Luckily this is becoming less of an issue as more migration tools are provided by providers such as Google's extensive migration suite.

Where is the cloud?

Cloud storage generally relies on hundreds of data servers across multiple locations around the world. This provides redundancy (should an entire data center fall over) and also optimal performance (always able to provide data from a close location). This means that your emails and business files are stored several times-over, across the globe in super secure data centers, waiting to be opened or written to.

Generally the Google data center in Ireland is most commonly used by our Ostratto partners as this is the closest full data center.

In closing

Cloud services are now fully available in today's business environment and the options of providers are vast. Ostratto are a firm believer of cloud technologies - they enable our partners (especially the smaller businesses) to scale freely and at a low cost which is vital during the early life of a business.

If you are interested in speaking to someone about how cloud technology can empower your business, get in touch with us today.