Cloud based storage for applications

angieanguk

I wonder if anyone could recommend a provider of this please. I have a small business and need to have an application hosted in the cloud (along with some file storage) so that I can access it from office or home (possibly via RDP) but I dont want to have to leave office pc on all the time. It will only be for one user so looking for something competitively priced and reliable. TIA.

paddyrg

Sounds like you want the programme to be running on, and remotely accessible on some third party server, not just store data, is this right? The short answer is that it's almost certainly not the right answer to your problem. If you want to know why, read on, or skip to the end.

For a programme to run on a computer, it needs an operating system running on a real machine (or a virtual machine on a real machine). This is the exact equivalent of leaving the office PC running overnight, but in a datacentre. This means paying for a running computer and operating system licence, and potentially software licence as well. That means having to do the security patching etc too! It's relatively expensive and certainly requires time and skills.

Instead, what's the exact problem? It may make more sense, for instance, to have two copies of the software, one at home and one at office, but to keep the data created on an accessible drive/share. You must discuss this with your IT department if you have one, as there are implications around licencing, security and possibly data protection protocols that must be respected.

fergual2

Hi Angie - have pm'd about an option

rhysadams

Is the application on your local computer and the data stored in the cloud, or is it that you want the application in the cloud.

Two different options really. We use Dropbox and Google drive massively for our applications, but the data itself is stored in the cloud and we can access it from different locations. We have just had a device called a Lima delivered, which acts in the same way but shares an externalt hard drive across a cloud.

If its an application you need to run and want to access it, there is a company called Mac in the sky where you rent a computer and remote into it to access your application. This works better than you think