A 5-Step Strategy for Responsible AI

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5-Step Strategy for Responsible AI

AI is changing how our businesses operate and compete. As we rely more on AI, having strong governance is essential to ensure our AI tools are used securely, ethically, and responsibly. Our use of AI should align with your company’s values and regulatory standards.

By setting clear policies and accountability, you can reduce risks like data breaches, ethical issues, and noncompliance. Strong governance also prevents unauthorized AI use, making sure that every AI activity supports your business goals.

1 Create Comprehensive AI Use Policies

Unauthorized AI use, or Shadow AI, creates serious risks for your business. To manage Shadow AI and other risks, you need visibility, control, and guidance for your team. A well-crafted AI Usage Policy reduces the chance of mistakes or misuse and helps you responsibly manage AI usage.

Your AI usage policies should:

  • Define allowed and unallowed use of AI as a tool/resource
  • Outline principles for ethical and appropriate use
  • Specify security guidelines to ensure data protection and compliance with regulations, industry standards, and contractual obligations

Your policies should also clearly state:

  • How your team should handle your company data
  • How your team should handle and protect third party data
  • Which AI tools are approved
  • When and how team members may use external AI resources

2 Implement and Monitor Controls

Implementing access controls and monitoring systems helps you identify when AI tools are being used outside approved channels.

Create processes for:

  • Your team to request access to AI tools and services
  • Evaluating requested tools for applicable use cases, usability, security, and cost
  • Deploying new AI tools and services, including education and training

Periodically audit your environment to spot unauthorized applications before they create problems. 

Work with your team to move to authorized AI tools that provide the same capabilities or review and select a solution you can secure and support.

3 Ensure Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Compliance is a key aspect of responsible AI use. Your AI practices need to follow data privacy laws, industry regulations, and contractual obligations. 

Begin by identifying and reviewing relevant laws, industry standards, and contractual obligations related to data privacy. Identify any specific conditions or requirements related to the use of AI services.

You want to be able to demonstrate and document your compliance. Review the security compliance certifications and practices of your AI services and tools. Collect the necessary information, including how your AI tools collect, store, and use data. 

Regular audits will help catch potential issues, particularly with Shadow AI. 

Stay current with evolving legislation to ensure that your AI practices remain compliant over time.

4 Prioritize Ethical AI Practices

Ethical AI builds trust and protects your reputation. When you prioritize ethics, you show that your business values integrity and fairness, strengthening relationships with clients and stakeholders.

  • Regularly review your AI models and the data they use to remove bias and ensure transparency in decision-making. In addition to bias detection and mitigation, AI training should include diverse data sources and that results are not skewed by inherent biases.
  • Make sure your AI is fair, explainable, and accountable, so your team and clients can trust its outcomes. AI tools should articulate results and decisions in human-understandable terms. People need to be able to understand the rationale behind the AI results.
  • Ensure you have human judgement and intervention at every stage of your AI journey. Clear lines of responsibility provide accountability. Human review prevents over-use of AI, particularly in decision-making. Encourage feedback from employees, clients, and other stakeholders.

5 Train and Support Your Team

Your AI strategy will only succeed if your team knows how to use AI safely and effectively. When your team is confident in using AI, you maximize its benefits while minimizing risks.

Provide training and support that covers technical skills, applicability to relevant use cases, and ethical considerations. 

Support strategies include:

  • Offering training sessions and user guides.
  • Providing a dedicated support team for questions.
  • Offering ongoing learning opportunities as AI evolves.

How We Help

Using AI securely and ethically requires careful planning and ongoing effort. Our Cloud Advisors can help you identify use cases, select tools and services, endure data security and government, and help your team get the most from your AI investments.

About the Author

Bill Seybolt bio pictureBill is a Senior Cloud Advisor responsible for helping small and midsize organizations with cloud forward solutions that meet their business needs, priorities, and budgets. Bill works with executives, leaders, and team members to understand workflows, identify strategic goals and tactical requirements, and design solutions and implementation phases. Having helped over 200 organizations successfully adopt cloud solutions, his expertise and working style ensure a comfortable experience effective change management.

Unleash the Power of NotebookLM

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eBook | Source: Google– NotebookLM is an AI-powered research assistant who reads and understands your private data. This Google eBook walks you through how NotebookLM can empower your teams to work smarter, not harder.

Read more

5 Cyber Threat Trends You Should Know

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5 Security Cyber Threats You Should Know

Earlier this week, we shared CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report which identified five (5) cyber threat trends that you should know. While cyber-fatigue is real, understanding the threat landscape helps you assess your risks and security posture and make informed decisions on how to prioritize security-related spending and investment.

5 Cyber Threat Trends

Here are the 5 cyber threat trends you should know.

1 China on the Rise

Cyber attacks originating in China – both nation-state and organized crime – jumped 130% over the prior 12 months. At the enterprise-level, China-nexus attackers focus on telecommunication systems. For most businesses, the increase in attacks on unmanaged devices should be of concern. 

Unmanaged devices lack detection and response capabilities that allow attackers to lurk, monitor, and capture credentials for greater access to your systems, applications, and data.

2 Hands-On-Keyboard Attacks are Making a Comeback

The best way for cyber attackers to avoid modern malware protection, such next-gen endpoint protection and managed detection and response (MDR) services, is for the attacker or a surrogate to use the keyboard. These manual, interactive attacks are up 27% over the prior year.

We may imagine hands–on-keyboard attacks as movie-like scenarios of corporate spies posing as custodians sneaking onto computers while avoiding the security guards making their rounds. In reality, the hands-on-attack may be your employee responding to somebody they think is IT support or a vendor helping them solve a problem.

3 Rapid Ransomware Reach

The speed at which cyber attackers can launch ransomware attacks after an initial breach is accelerating. From breach to spread, attacks are up to 32% faster than previously known.

This speed gives cybersecurity systems less time to identify behaviors and patterns that identify the cyber attack, weakening the effectiveness of the protections.

4 AI for Evil

With the help of AI, certain types of cyber attacks have jumped 220% over the prior year. Cyber attackers are using generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) technologies to power more-effective attacks.  

Using GenAI, attackers create more realistic fakes – emails, documents, phone calls, and videos – to trigger responses and reactions that enable and facilitate access and breaches.

At the same time, cyber attackers are using security vulnerabilities in the platforms and tools businesses use to build AI agents, just as they use vulnerabilities in web, application, and office productivity platforms.

5 Cloud Attacks Gain Altitude

Cloud intrusions – successful cyber attacks on cloud systems and services – jumped 136% during the first half of 2025 compared to all of 2024. These attacks vector through compromised identities, improper security configurations, API vulnerabilities, lax security and permissions governance.

Steps You Can Take

To ensure your security footprint protects your business appropriately:

  • Conduct IT and Security Assessments that benchmark your security posture.
  • Prioritize your risks based on the nature and size of your business, industry standards and expectations, and regulatory requirements.
  • Level our Security CPR® model and managed services to plan, prioritize, and implement appropriate security and business resilience solutions that:
    • Address your prioritized risks as your budget allows
    • Protect from the most common and the most damaging/costly types of attacks.

We Will Help

Plan Now; Act Soon. Our Cloud Advisors are here to assist. We will:

  • Review your current systems and services and prioritize your risks. 
  • Help you prioritize, plan, and budget for security changes and improvements that may be necessary or preferred
  • Deploy and co-manage your security solutions to keep you protected.

Schedule time with one of our Cloud Advisors now to begin your security review and improvements.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – AI Ultra for Business

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Google AI Ultra for BusinessGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover the Google AI Ultra add-on for Google Workspace.

Google AI Ultra for Business

Google AI Ultra for Business is an add-on for existing Google Workspace Business and Enterprise subscribers, offering enhanced capabilities.  Beyond the highest access to the Gemini app, Google AI Ultra for Business delivers advanced tools for deep reasoning, images, and videos.

Here are 4 reasons to consider Google Ultra for Business:

1 Gemini App
  • Dive deep with the most capable models, including Gemini 2.5 Pro and Deep Research.
  • Deep Think, with the ability to explore multiple scenarios and answers before responding, is coming soon.
2 Video Generation
  • AI Ultra for Business includes advanced filmmaking tools:
    • Veo 3 — Professional video production tool
    • Flow — Create cinematic scenes using Veo 3
    • Whisk — Image and text to 8-second videos, using Veo 2

3 Project Mariner

  • Research prototype for streamlined human-agent interaction
  • Allows AI agents to handle multiple tasks concurrently
  • Coming soon, initially to the US only

4 Individual YouTube Premium

  • Upgrade your video game with an individual YouTube Premium plan.

And More …

Google AI Ultra for Business also includes higher access and usage limits for:

  • Gemini App
  • Image Generation
  • NotebookLM
  • AI Credits (12,500 credits per month)
  • Storage (30 TB across Photos, Drive, and Gmail

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – AppSheet

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Gemini AI in AppSheetGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in AppSheet.

AI in AppSheet

AppSheet is an add-on for Google Workspace and a Google Cloud service that empowers Google Workspace users to create custom apps and automations without writing code.

In addition to simplifying workflow creation and connecting your business data, AppSheet provides controls needed to remain secure and compliant.

Gemini AI in AppSheet helps you create and refine apps and better access and refine your data and information.

Here are 3 Gemini features in AppSheet you should know.

1 Create an App
  • Bring app ideas to life by simply describing them. Gemini AI in AppSheet can transform those concepts
    into a fully functional app for you to edit or publish.
2 Extract Information
  • Currently in preview, Gemini AI in AppSheet lets you populate forms and reports directly from images. Snap a photo of a receipt, invoice or document to capture data and match it to the right fields.
3 Connect External Services
  • Also in preview, AppSheet apps can connect to hundreds of Google Cloud and third-party services without custom code.

And More …

You can also:

  • Embed Gemini-powered AI tasks directly within your AppSheet automations.
  • Extract information from PDF files.
  • Automatically categorize information as it is input.
  • Route and prioritize items based on categorized content to streamline workflows.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – Vids

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Gemini AI in VidsGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in Vids.

AI in Vids

Vids is a relatively new addition to the Google Workspace family of apps. Google Vids is a cutting-edge video creation platform, powered by AI.

Gemini AI in Vids helps you generate your first draft and land your message with AI voiceovers. You are empowered to create polished videos in less time so you can tell more engaging stories.

Here are 3 Gemini features in Vids you should know.

1 Create Your Story
  • Create your video storyboard with suggested scenes, scripts, stock media, music, and more to jumpstart video storytelling. Start with only a prompt and a file from your Google Drive.
2 AI Voiceovers
  • Use Gemini in Vids to give your videos a fresh voice by choosing from a variety of preset, professional- sounding voiceovers.
3 Read-Along Teleprompter
  • Record your talk track with confidence using the teleprompter embedded directly in Vids’ recording studio, so you can stay on message.

And More …

You can also

Create Clips from Prompts
  • Turn ideas into video clips by providing a descriptive prompt.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – Chat

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Gemini AI in ChatGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in Chat.

AI in Chat

Chat in Google Workspace provides direct messages, group chats, and spaces. Chat makes work collaboration and project management easier.

Gemini AI in Chat is your real-time assistant and partner for team collaboration. Use it to stay on top of active conversations by summarizing recent messages, finding specific details, and capturing action items. With on-demand summaries in the Chat home view, AI in Chat gives you a single place to catch up on every conversation.

Here are 4 Gemini features in Chat you should know.

Chat Summaries
  • Located in the home view for Chat, Gemini AI in Chat provides you on-demand summaries of each active conversation. 
  • You can catch up quickly in one place and focus your attention where it’s needed most.
Action Items
  • Gemini AI in Chat can analyze conversations and automatically identify and list action items. Stay organized and ensure that decisions and tasks are clearly understood and assigned. 
  • You can ask for a general list of action items or ask to see action items specifically for a particular person.
Contextual Question Answering
  • You can ask Gemini AI specific questions about a conversation or a shared file directly within Chat. This gives you quick retrieval of information without manually scrolling back through messages.
  • For example, if someone mentioned a timeline extension or a project decision, you can ask Gemini, “What did [person] say about the timeline extension?” or “What’s the decision on the project discussed?” 
Automatic Language Translation
  • Google Chat, using Gemini, will automatically detect and translate messages in over 120 languages to your preferred language and keep the original message for review. 

And More …

From the side panel, Gemini AI in Chat functions as an AI assistant and content generator. You can use AI in Chat to:

Draft Messages
  • Get AI assistance to compose messages, replies, or even brainstorm ideas directly within the chat interface.
Reference Shared Files
  • Gemini AI in Chat can analyze shared Google Workspace files (like Docs or Slides) linked in a chat and provide summaries or answer questions about their content.
  • You get immediate context about shared documents without needing to open each file separately.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – NotebookLM

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Gemini AI in NotebookLMGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in NotebookLM

AI in NotebookLM

NotebookLM is a research and learning assistant, powered by Gemini, that helps you navigate and understand your information more effectively. Its responses are accurate, relevant, and tailored to the specific context of your inquiry.

Here are 4 Gemini features in NotebookLM you should know:

Source Grounding
  • NotebookLM bases its responses solely on the sources you provide (e.g., PDFs, Google Docs, website URLs, YouTube videos, audio files). This significantly reduces “hallucinations” and ensures the AI’s output is directly relevant to your material. Every response is accompanied by citations, allowing you to easily verify the information against your original sources.
Audio Overviews/Podcast Generation
  • Use NotebookLM to transform your source material into an engaging audio “podcast” with two AI hosts discussing the content. This allows for “listening and learning on the go” and can help in digesting complex information in a more accessible format. With interactive mode, you can “join” the conversation and ask questions of the AI hosts.
Precise Question Answering
  • NotebookLM can understand nuances in your questions. It’s like having a helper who can instantly recall specific details from a vast library of information and give you relevant answers to different types of questions, however simple or complex they may be.
Conversational AI for Deeper Understanding
  • Interact with your uploaded sources via chat interface. Ask direct questions about your documents, explore connections between different sources, or even ask the AI to explain complex concepts in simpler terms. Gemini AI in NotebookLM acts as a personalized research assistant, helping you delve deeper into your material.

And More …

You can also use Gemini AI within NotebookLM for …

Intelligent Summarization and Information Extraction

NotebookLM excels at summarizing complex documents and extracting key information. You can generate:

  • Overviews/Briefing Docs: High-level summaries for quick digestion.
  • FAQs: Automatically generated frequently asked questions based on your content.
  • Timelines: Capture sequential information contained within your documents.
  • Study Guides:  Create study materials, including short-answer questions, answers, and glossaries.
Idea Generation and Content Creation 

Beyond summarization and Q&A, NotebookLM assists with creative tasks and content generation.

  • Brainstorm new ideas based on your research.
  • Generate scripts, outlines, or other structured content from your notes.
  • Receive suggestions for improving your writing style or structure.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – Slides

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Gemini AI in SlidesGoogle Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in Slides.

AI in Slides

Google Slides are a collaborative tool for communicating ideas. Gemini AI in Slides helps bring your presentations to life. Create visually stunning unique images, generate new slides, get help writing slides content and talk tracks, and catch up with quick summaries.

Here are 5 Gemini features in Slides you should know:

Generate Slides and Presentations
  • Use Gemini AI to transform ideas into slides and full presentations. 
  • Start your presentation from scratch by giving the AI a prompt or describing your presentation in a few sentences. 
  • Gemini will generate an outline and a first draft of slides, complete with titles, bullet points, and even suggested layouts.
Generate Images
  • Gemini AI in Slides uses advanced image generation models (like Imagen 3) to create original images directly within your presentation. Describe the image you need and the AI will generate it. Create unique visuals without searching for stock photos.
Summarize Presentations
  • Get up to speed quickly with automatic presentation summaries provided by Gemini in the side panel of Slides.
Generate Speaker Notes
  • AI in Slides can assist in creating speaker notes for individual slides and can provide an executive summary for your entire presentation. You get clear talking points quickly and efficiently.
Design Suggestions and Customization
  • Gemini AI suggests visually appealing layouts and designs for your slides and with a consistent and professional look. 
  • Transform a plain block of text into a more structured format like a timeline or a diagram.

And More …

You can also use Gemini AI within Slides for …

Contextual Content Creation
  • Gemini in Slides can reference your existing Google Drive files (PDFs, Docs, etc.) or even Gmail emails to help you generate new slides or extract relevant information.
Remove Image Backgrounds
  • This feature allows you to easily remove the background from images you’ve added to your slides, making it simpler to integrate visuals seamlessly into your design.
Rewrite/Summarize Text
  • Gemini AI helps you refine your slide content. Select text and ask the AI to rewrite it for conciseness, to expand on a point, or to change the tone. 
  • You can also use Gemini AI in Slides to summarize longer blocks of text into digestible bullet points for your slides.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.

AI in Google Workspace – Sheets

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Gemini AI in Sheets

Google Workspace is a comprehensive and secure platform that empowers organizations to be more productive, collaborative, and creative. This series explores the power of AI built within Google Workspace across each of the workspace apps. In this post, we cover AI in Sheets.

AI in Sheets

Google Sheets is a spreadsheet and data analysis tool built for ease of use and collaboration. Using Gemini AI in Sheets, you can build spreadsheets, summarize your data, generate formulas, and improve your data skills.Gemini in Sheets helps you build more effective and efficient sheets.

Here are 3 Gemini features in Sheets you should know:

 

Create Tables
  • Gemini in Sheets helps you build contextually relevant, formatted, and styled spreadsheets in a snap. 
Create Formulas
  • You can ask Gemini to create formulas for you, combining and nesting functions for your desired results.  
Summarize Spreadsheet Data
  • Gemini in Sheets will automatically summarize the data in your spreadsheet. You gain a better understanding of your data, creating actionable information. You can also ask Gemini questions about the summary for deeper insights.

And More …

With Gemini AI in Sheets, you can also …

  • Build and enhance spreadsheets using content in other files and your emails.
  • Use prompts to edit your sheets with actions such as adding checkboxes or dropdowns, applying conditional formatting, and sorting data.

You can ask Gemini to create formulas for you, combining and nesting functions for your desired results.  

Summarize Spreadsheet Data

Gemini in Sheets will automatically summarize the data in your spreadsheet. You gain a better understanding of your data, creating actionable information. You can also ask Gemini questions about the summary for deeper insights.

And More …

With Gemini AI in Sheets, you can also …

  • Build and enhance spreadsheets using content in other files and your emails.
  • Use prompts to edit your sheets with actions such as adding checkboxes or dropdowns, applying conditional formatting, and sorting data.

We Will Help

At Cumulus Global, our priority is ensuring that you have productive, secure, and affordable managed cloud services. We work to ensure that you get the most value from the IT and cloud services you need and want, without overspending, to best support your business objectives.

Unsure of where to start? Check out our IT Assessment or schedule a meeting with a Cloud Advisor. We will help you adapt while keeping your IT services secure and cost-effective.

About the Author

Allen Falcon is the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Global.  Allen co-founded Cumulus Global in 2006 to offer small businesses enterprise-grade email security and compliance using emerging cloud solutions. He has led the company’s growth into a managed cloud service provider with over 1,000 customers throughout North America.