Cloud Guru Joins Cumulus Global in New York Expansion

New York, NY, July 11, 2013 – Cumulus Global today announced that David Watts is joining Cumulus Global as a Senior Cloud Consultant, leading Cumulus Global’s expansion into the Metro New York area. Watts brings a consultative approach to matching businesses, non-profits, local governments, and schools with the right cloud solutions. The addition of Watts […]

Google Apps cPanel Gets and Upgrade (Part 2)

This is the second of a two-part series covering the new look and features in the Google Apps Admin Panel. In addition to being a more uncluttered dashboard, the new and improved Google Admin Console will now make it easier than ever to customize the panel to your benefit.  The panel can now be readjusted […]

Surface RT Deal for EDUs: Too Good to be Good

When you see a prominent industry headline that reads “Microsoft Surface RT: Dumping Inventory Or Investing In Education?“, you know something isn’t quite right.  Earlier this week, Microsoft announced it was slashing pricing on Surface RT tablets for schools down to $199 per unit with keyboard options bringing the price to $249 or $289. The […]

Google Apps cPanel Gets and Upgrade (Part 1)

This is the first of a two-part series covering the new look and features in the Google Apps Admin Panel. Most interface changes are dreaded by users and implemented with reluctance. However, instead of updating the Google Apps Control Panel to a more complex setup with less or equal function to its predecessor, this new […]

Google Apps, PRISM, and the NSA

With media attention and hype, leaked documents, Congressional hearings, and a great deal of explanation and back-peddling, the world now knows that the United States government spies on people. Okay, we already knew that. So, we learned that about a secret “FISA” court that can issue secret subpoenas letting the government look at information about […]

Moving to the Cloud: Too Many Choices?

  This post is the ninth, and final, post in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Good News; Bad News. The Good News:  Organizations can choose from a rapidly growing myriad of cloud computing services and solutions. The Bad News:  Organizations can choose from a rapidly […]

Moving to the Cloud: Internationalization

  This post is the eighth in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Cloud computing is global and a growing number of cloud solution providers are global as well.  Data stored in the cloud can end up in data centers in other countries and jurisdictions with […]

Moving to the Cloud: Regulatory Compliance

  This post is the seventh in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Moving to the cloud often entails more than switching to an email service or spinning up a some cloud-based storage and servers.  For many businesses — including Small and Mid-Size Businesses (SMBs) — […]

Moving to the Cloud: Integration with Legacy Systems

  This post is the sixth in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Very few businesses go “all-in” when moving into the cloud.  Most businesses start their move into the cloud with specific applications and services.  For small and mid-size businesses, the trend is to go […]

Google+ Hangouts and Google Apps: OFF for a Reason

As Google prepares to replace Google Talk with Google+ Hangouts, customers expect to benefit from the improved audio/video quality and features that Hangouts offer over Talk. There are very good reasons why Google+ Hangouts are OFF by default in Google Apps for Business (Gov and Edu, too).  Before you turn on Google+ Hangouts, understand the […]

Moving to the Cloud: Lock-In

  This post is the fifth in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. When looking at cloud solutions, most organizations spend a great deal of time, appropriately so, investigating how they will move data and processes into the cloud.  At the same time, organizations should understand […]

Moving to the Cloud: Privacy

  This post is the fourth in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Few topics related to cloud computing create more passion than privacy.  Knowing how well your organization’s information will be safe-guarded is key to trusting a service provider and the decision to go to […]

Moving to the Cloud: Provider Reliability

  This post is the third in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. One of the challenges in planning a move to the cloud remains the relative youth of the current industry.  While the concept of cloud computing is not new (tip your hat to Control […]

Moving to the Cloud: Cost Savings

  This post is the second in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. Will moving to the cloud save money? The answer is a definite, absolute … maybe! Whether or not a move to the cloud saves money depends on the in-house services being replaced and […]

Moving to the Cloud: Security

  This post is the first in a series addressing concerns organizations may have that prevent them from moving the cloud-based solutions. At some point in the evaluation and decision process, the issue of security comes to the forefront as organizations look at cloud computing.  Vendors and resellers, like Cumulus Global, often provide two answers […]

Microsoft to iOS and Android Users: “Never Mind.”

  Are we really surprised?  In the flurry of Microsoft’s marketing blitz for Office 2013, Microsoft promised that the “new office” would be available across every platform.  That Mac, iOS, and Android users would not be left behind. Fast forward a few months and Microsoft  delaying MS Office for the iOS and Android platforms by […]

Quickoffice: More Than Office for Mobile Users

    With this week’s release of Quickoffice for iPhone and Android platforms, Google Apps for Business mobile users can now access and edit MS Office files on any iOS or current Android device.  Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files are no longer captive to heavy and more expensive Windows laptops, netbooks, and tablets. Overdrive …  […]

Web Weary? Malware May Be the Reason

  This blog post is the third in a series on Data Protection issues and practical solutions. By some estimates, as many as 60% of search results are tainted with malware, attracting users to infected sites and putting your systems and data at risk.  While not every infection poses a threat, the industry consensus remains […]

Incompetence 16; Microsoft 0

  Last week, Microsoft’s new Outlook.com service suffered its second major outage since its launch earlier this year.  The most recent outage, a 16 hour fiasco impacting Outlook.com, Hotmail, and SkyDrive users, was due to an botched firmware update resulting in overheating servers in one of its data centers.  As reported in PC World, the […]

Viral Spread of Cloud Creates New Challenges

This blog post is the second in a series on Data Protection issues and practical solutions. As discussed in a recent TechRepublic Blog Post, cloud computing vendors are enabling the spread of on-demand software outside the control of the IT Department. It is easy to see how it happens.  Somebody signs up for a service […]