How stupid is Windows Azure?

Conor_3

nickcardwell wrote: »

You get what you pay for. i dont know any IT guy worth his salt who would recommend google apps for business.

This was something that affected paying businesses.

wolfman

chunter wrote: »

ok so there's 2 completely different issue in there.

But the cloud stuff is a lazy alternative.
When the connection goes down, the system gets hacked or data is lost, who are you going to blame? And who is responsible?
Can't happen eh?

It's not lazy at all.

What if the connection goes down on your dedicated server? or it gets hacked? It's no different.

It's only the beginning of Azure. Hosted services have been around for a while now. Just look at Gmail and how successful it is. Blogger, Google Docs, Flickr, are other big examples.

As mentioned hosted Exchange, and other things like Subversion (code) hosting work very well too. And it costs virtually nothing to a small business.

We currently use it and it works fine. Part of the service is a guaranteed uptime and regular backups (we wouldn't use it if it didn't). One less thing we need to worry about and one less server in the rack in our office.

And with regards to things like "if you actually have a working connection". Come on, when do you not have a connection.

If you know you're going somewhere without connection just pull down the documents you plan to work on. Much like you would if you worked in a local office anyway.

And if the connection drops, well get a second ISP prior. It's quite standard in businesses today. Or go home and work. Or find a wireless point somewhere. There are plenty of alternatives.

And with things like Google Docs, rather than edit it online, just download it, and when done, upload the new version. Simple, if you're worried.

If you're worried about if they backup or not, check the SLA. And if they don't just take backups yourself. I do for Google Docs. The whole advantage of putting it up there is that I can work on my docs from a numbers of places rather than just my flat pc.

wolfman

And yes I can't see many IT people recommending Google Docs for business. It's not aimed at businesses or enterprise users. It's more for personal use, or working in small groups.