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Video Streaming and Your ISP Performance

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As you move to the cloud, you will be more dependent on reliable, well-performing, Internet service.

Video Quality ReportOne of the largest services that impacts Internet, and therefore cloud-based service, performance, is video streaming.  The Google Video Quality Report is a free tool that lets you look at the video streaming patterns for your Internet Service Provider (ISP) and others in your area.  By comparing usage patterns, you can better understand your ISP’s performance and can determine if your ISP, or another, is best for you.

For general monitoring of Internet connection performance, we recommend Ookla’s Speedtest. This site will test Ping response, download speed, and upload speed, which you can then compare to your contract guarantees.  The site will test against the closest server; we recommend testing with several servers in your area to get a better assessment of your speed. Creating an account let’s you save and share your results.

 

 

 

3 IT Shifts for Small Business: Mobile-Social

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Shifter
The nature of computing and how it’s used by business is changing – rapidly.  You have heard the buzzwords … mobile, social, cloud, big data, analytics, and others.  You probably have thought about your own business and thought the these changes are just for the enterprise.

Three major shifts in technology, however, can and will impact your organization:  Data; Cloud; and Mobile-Social.

Shift 3: Mobile-Social

Why do we combine Mobile and Social? Social would not exist without Mobile.  Before the mobile revolution, social was limited to “Other who viewed this also viewed …” cues like those on Amazon.com. Social works because it is quick, easy, convenient, and immediate.

And while mobile technology lets us stay connected to the office and provides us access to information, the real transformation with mobile and social technologies is engagement.

Engagement, driven by mobile and social technologies, lets you build trust and establish value. And, if done properly, lets you build trust and value in a secure manner.

Mobile-Social lets you expand the nature of your engagement. You can easily move beyond 1:1 conversations with your customers. The #hashtag and the @mention let you “listen in” on the conversations you customers are having with their friends, and can give you the opportunity to join the conversation.

While there are examples of social media posts going viral and shaming companies into better behavior. The real opportunity lies with this type of communication:

“We saw you post about X. We were not aware of this issue and will fix it quickly. A customer rep will call you shortly to assist you directly.”

And via communications like this:

“Thank you for mentioning your great experience with our service. We are sending you a small token or our appreciation for your business and support.”

Most small business, like yours and ours, could never afford the infrastructure necessary to facilitate, monitor, and act on social media interactions.  Cloud-based services, however, have the horsepower and economy of scale to enable us to leverage social-mobile technologies. And, make it possible to integrate our social-mobile applications with our operational and line of business systems.

 

3 IT Shifts for Small Business: Cloud

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Shifter
The nature of computing and how it’s used by business is changing – rapidly.  You have heard the buzzwords … mobile, social, cloud, big data, analytics, and others.  You probably have thought about your own business and thought the these changes are just for the enterprise.

Three major shifts in technology, however, can and will impact your organization:  Data; Cloud; and Mobile-Social.

Shift 2: Cloud

Not everything labeled “cloud” is actually “cloud computing”.  For our purposes, that’s okay.  Whether meeting the strict definition of cloud computing or a hosted service, the cloud is transformational.

Virtualization, one of the underlying mechanisms of building cloud services, is the entry point for most businesses doing it themselves.  Virtualization, however, is only the baseline.

The real power of the cloud is that IT and business processes transform into digital services.

Filing an auto insurance claim, for example, used to be a time-consuming process with paper forms, phone calls, visits to repair shops, and meeting with adjusters.  Today, filing a claim is digital service available to the policy holder by mobile app that instantly puts the information in the hands of the broker, adjuster, and back-office.

Cloud technology has the power to transform business models. Small businesses are less limited by geography than any other time in human history. Scalable, affordable resources empower companies to experiment and development without prohibitive capital investment. The pace of innovation accelerates and time to market drops.

While some small businesses may deliver cloud-based solutions to customers, for your business, the impact on the customer may be indirect. Better relationship management and systems enhance the way we sell. Better support systems scale with our customer base, enable self-help, and improve communications. Even simple abilities, like secure calendar sharing, make it easier for your customers to make appointments to speak with you and your team.

The cloud makes it easier for us to select specific applications and services. And we can integrate these applications and services into a single computing ecosystem without huge investments in middleware, custom programming, and infrastructure.

Where you start with the cloud depends on how you want your business to evolve. We recommend beginning with a platform that enables communications and collaborations, and can serve as the integration point for CRM, ERP, and other applications, as well as line of business systems.

3 IT Shifts for Small Business: Data

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Shifter
The nature of computing and how it’s used by business is changing – rapidly.  You have heard the buzzwords … mobile, social, cloud, big data, analytics, and others.  You probably have thought about your own business and thought the these changes are just for the enterprise.

Three major shifts in technology, however, can and will impact your organization:  Data; Cloud; and Mobile/Social.

Shift 1: Data

In every wave of computing since the 1970’s, the evolution has focused on helping organizations make processes faster and cheaper.  Our current wave is about data.

The process for handling an insurance claim has been optimized for over 40 years.  Today, it’s about the data. How does the customer file a claim?  By phone? By filling out an online form? By sending pictures? Is it on the web? Is there an app for that?

The data shift recognizes that data is the new natural resource. The accident report isn’t just about paying a claim, it’s about assessing risk, finding patterns, and measuring outcomes. The focus is on data collection, analysis, and presentation.

If the data is available in a usable format, the processes remain efficient and even improve.

For some small businesses, the data revolution may mean investing in big data and analytic tools.  For others, CRM and ERP systems provide a starting point.  For most, however, the data revolution begins with access to data.  It sounds simple. But …

Can you team find the documents and information they need, easily and quickly?  Do they have access from anywhere they may be working, from any device, at anytime?

Do you route documents as email attachments, or provide access? Do you manage roles – owner, editor, reviewer, etc?

Can your team work together in person or remotely, in real-time or as convenient? Do file systems become a mess of document names and versions? How easy is it for your team to collaborate with vendors or customers?

Traditional, in-house file servers prevent the data shift. Ubiquitous access does not exist, permission settings are complex, and files sit in a separate silo than your communication tools.

Businesses like yours are moving to cloud storage and broader cloud platforms for the data shift. Case in point: Google Apps for Work.

Google Apps for Work provides a platform that gives small businesses the ability to shift to a data-centric way of working.

  • Your team collaborates by working on a single version of the document, in real-time or as convenient. Changes are tracked; revisions are managed.
  • People share documents by sending access links, not attachments. Your staff need not waste time figuring out where they saved the latest version, and if their latest version is the latest version.
  • When looking for information, a search in Gmail can also list relevant Drive and Sites content.
  • Storage is cheap, and optionally unlimited.
  • Conference calls become face-to-face meetings, via Hangouts.  People collaborate, can see how others respond, and can share screens and documents without complex meeting software.

Moving to Google Apps is not a decision about whether or not to stop using MS Office (you can save/edit MS Office files with Drive). Moving to Google Apps is about whether or not you want your business to thrive in a data-driven world.

 

Cumulus Global Tops CRN Fast Growth 150

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CRN Fast Growth 150
Cumulus Global Ranks #1 Among Elite Group of Fastest Growing Solution Providers in the IT Channel

 

Westborough, MA, September 15, 2014 – Cumulus Global, Cloud Solutions for Small and Mid-Size Enterprises, announced today that it has been named to top of the CRN Fast Growth 150 list with a two-year growth rate exceeding 680%. The Fast Growth 150 list recognizes the fastest growing IT Service providers over a two-year period, based on gross revenue from calendar year 2011 through calendar year 2013.  Cumulus Global, and other solution providers on the Fast Growth 150, have demonstrated exceptional business finesse in order to thrive despite a turbulent IT economy.

“The solution providers recognized in CRN’s Fast Growth 150 list have successfully navigated the industry’s economic upheaval and have adapted their businesses and grown despite the significant changes that evolving technologies like cloud computing, collaboration and mobility have created in the IT space,” said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company, publisher of CRN.  “These organizations are some of the most successful solution providers in business today, and it is our pleasure to recognize them for their accomplishments and draw attention to them as leaders in today’s IT channel.”

Cumulus Global’s growth stems from its growing range of cloud-based services and its expansion into new arenas, including the K-12 education and local government markets. The firm recently launched a website specific to its K-12 education offerings and services, at www.cumulusglobaleducation.com.

“We are honored by the recognition from CRN as we continue to innovate and grow”, stated Cumulus Global CEO Allen Falcon. “This growth would not be possible without our dedicated team, great vendor partners, and customers that see the value in the services we deliver.”

For small and mid-size businesses, Cumulus Global offers solutions that leverage Google Apps for Work as a business infrastructure. Using Google Apps for Work as a platform, Cumulus Global integrates advanced services to meet customers’ needs beyond email and calendars, including managed and secure file services, business and regulatory compliance, voice/video conferencing, and cloud-based or hosted line of business applications.  The company also offers a range of cloud and hosted solutions for data protection and data loss prevention.

Highlights on the Fast Growth 150 list are featured in the October issue of CRN and can be viewed online at www.crn.com.

The CRN Fast Growth 150 recognition follows Cumulus Global’s ranking at 349 on the 2014 Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies in America, and the company’s receiving the Boston Business Journal Pacesetter Award as the 5th Fastest Growing Provide Company in Massachusetts.

About The Channel Company

The Channel Company is the channel community’s trusted authority for growth and innovation, with established brands including CRN, XChange Events, IPED, and SharedVue. For more than three decades, we have leveraged our proven and leading-edge platforms to deliver prescriptive sales and marketing solutions for the technology channel. The Channel Company provides Communication, Recruitment, Engagement, Enablement, Demand Generation and Intelligence services to drive technology partnerships. Learn more at www.thechannelcompany.com.

 

5 Security Threats SMBs Should Not Overlook: Malicious Web Sites

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Security Puzzle
As more services move into the cloud, users bring their own apps to their work environment, and we see more integration and interconnect between systems, the nature security risks and threats are changing.  

This blog series looks at some of these threats, why the should be of concern to SMBs, and how SMBs can mitigate the risks.

Many small and mid-size business owners look past security threats in the belief that their businesses do not have trade secrets or other information coveted by hackers.  This view is naive.  Small businesses are ripe for attack because they often have personal, credit, or medical information about their customers and their employees.

Your business may at risk even if you are not a deliberate target. Hackers and thieves cast wide nets to capture personal information for identity theft. For identity theft, your business IT is no different than home computers.

Many businesses respond that they have security in place.  A well managed firewall, a big name malware suite that updates periodically, and spam/virus protection for their email service.

Unfortunately, users are 20 times more likely to suffer a malware attack from a corrupted web site or a phishing attempt then through the “traditional” means of email and file transfers. While traditional malware tools may catch these types of attacks, web-based malware often behaves more like acceptable code.  The recent outbreak of “crypto locker” malware, which encrypts your data and holds it for ransom, is an example of just how ineffective traditional malware prevention alone can be.

The overlooked solution to closing the web-enabled malware threat is known and simple: web filtering.  Web filters not only track sites known to be risky, insecure, or containing malware, they analyze web traffic and behavior in real-time, identifying sites that may be compromised, including those hacked without the site owner’s knowledge.

For most SMBs, adding web filtering to the ecosystem is an affordable increase in IT spending, typically less than $3.00 per employee per month.   Given that a single malware event can take 20 to 60 hours to mitigate at a cost of thousands of dollars, web filtering is a value-add component for most IT ecosystems.

Cumulus Global can assist in selecting a web filtering solution for your business.  Please contact us, or complete the form below, for more information.

Cumulus Global in the News – 3Q14

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NewsBeacon.150

Cumulus Global is active in the cloud solution provider channel and markets.  Allen Falcon, our CEO, has been quoted several times recently in the trade and industry press.

Google Expands Video Offerings To Business Customers
CRN, July 30, 2014
Our View:  Businesses, schools, and other organizations will benefit from Hangouts becoming a core Google Apps service, covered under the Terms of Service and the Service Level Agreement.  The expanded features make it easier to use Hangouts for video conferences and web meetings, and to interact with others outside your organization.

Google Rattles Cages Of Amazon, Microsoft With 2TB Free Cloud Storage Offer
CRN, July 9, 2014
Our View: Google continues to pressure the industry to make and keep cloud services affordable for small and mid-size businesses.

Cumulus Global: Born In The Cloud And Legacy-Free
IT Best of Breed, July 9, 2014
Our View: We appreciate the recognition as a leader in value-add cloud and hosted solutions for SMBs and K-12 Education

Partner Spotlight – Cumulus Global
Bettercloud, July 2, 2014
Our View: Thank you for a nice profile that helps organizations understand what makes us tick.

Google Exec, Partners Criticize Microsoft Office 365 Price Hike
CRN, July 2, 2014
Our View: Microsoft is raising prices on its best customers days after two major outages. Overcharging for under-performance is not a key to success.

Cumulus Global CEO Named Strategic Cloud Advisor for NexGen Cloud Conference
Providence Journal, May 28, 2014
Our View: We are excited to be part of the NexGen Cloud Conference, helping further the cloud computing industry

MetroWest 10 To Watch 2014 – Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global 
Worcester Business Journal Online, May 19, 2014
Our View: We appreciate the recognition from our customers and peers.

Cloud Outages: Which Provider has 3 of the 10 biggest so far in 2014?

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crn-logo
CRN Magazine recently published a list of the 10 biggest and most impactful cloud service outages so far in 2010.  Outages happen.  Every vendor has, or will have, an outage at some point in time.  The severity of outages and how well a vendor communicates and recovers, however, point to underlying quality of service issues.

According to CRN, Microsoft’s Lync outage on June 23rd, Exchange outage on June 24th, and no-ip.com seizure outages starting June 30th represent 3 of the 10 biggest outages so far this calendar year.

See the full list of cloud outages.

 

 

Lease vs Buy: Time to Rethink Your Options

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Key for buy and lease
Historically, the “lease versus buy” decision for IT purchases focused on a business’ cash flow and the impact major projects would have on company financial statements.  CFOs would look at leasing options when cash flow was an issue, and to see if the capital expenditures or operating costs would best benefit ROI and other key metrics.

Three factors drive the need to take a fresh look at leasing versus buying:

  1. Trends in End User Devices
  2. Moves to Cloud Computing
  3. Interest Rates & Economy

End User Devices: With organizations moving away from traditional desktops and laptops to Chromebooks, tablets, hybrids, ultra-portables, and smartphones, the life cycle of end-user devices is changing.  These devices are not designed to last as long and compatibility with advancing systems and services is lost more quickly.  The original iPad, for example, was release in early 2010 and became obsolete with the release of iOS 6 in September 2012.

The impact on businesses is that, even though they are much less expensive, refresh and upgrade cycles will need to happen more frequently if devices are to remain connected to applications and systems.

Moves to Cloud Computing: As companies move to cloud computing the need to maintain hardware platforms to support legacy applications is dwindling.  And, the impact of IT as an operating expense versus capital expenditure is advantageous to the vast majority of small and mid-size enterprises.  The concept of monthly recurring fees is generally accepted, although many vendors charge a small premium for monthly versus annual prepaid fees.

The impact on businesses is that the flexibility in licensing and costs, and cash flow benefits come, at a higher price than one-time purchases and annual payments.  Leasing can mitigate these costs.

Interest Rates and the Economy: With a long, slow recovery and continued low interest rates, the finance costs for leasing have rarely been as low as they are currently. Even as the Federal Reserve tapers and ends its bond-buying stimulus, interest rates are expected to remain low as job growth struggles.

The impact for businesses is that the finance costs for most leasing opportunities are probably less than expected.

The Big Opportunity: Fair Market Value Leasing

Fair Market Value, or FMV, leases offer a unique, big opportunity for small and mid-size businesses today.

Win #1: FMV leases assume that you will return the equipment to the finance company and upgrade at the end of the lease.  As such, they match well with planned refresh cycles needed with today’s end user devices.

Win #2: The leasing company assigns a residual value to the assets.  Financing is based on the purchase price less the residual value, lowering the overall cost of the asset.

Win #3: At current interest rates, the interest cost of a 3-year lease may be less than the residual value of the asset, effectively creating a 0% or “Near 0%” financing option.

Win #4: Bundling annual prepaid cloud services lets you get the prepaid savings and still make payments monthly.  At current rates, the you will likely still pay less than monthly plans.

Win #5: You can combine hardware, cloud licenses, and services in your lease, giving you one payment for all services.  Leasing companies are flexible, with monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual payment plans in order to best meet your business’ financial needs.

Granted, leasing is not for every business.  But, it is probably worth some exploration before your next purchase.  Feel free to contact us to discuss your needs and available options.

 

 

Cumulus Global CEO Named Strategic Cloud Advisor for NexGen Cloud Conference

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Cumulus Global today announced the addition of Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global, as a Strategic Cloud Advisor for the NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo slated to launch December 3, 2014 in San Diego, CA. Falcon brings his knowledge of cloud computing for SMBs and education to the advisory board, and will provide insight and direction through selecting topics and speakers for this industry event. The NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo is aimed at IT service providers looking to emerge as leaders in cloud computing services.

“I am honored by the invitation to the Advisory Board and I am looking forward to the opportunity to help further the industry”, stated Falcon. “Cloud Computing is not just a new technology and is not just a new approach to IT service delivery, Cloud Computing is transformative in its ability to enable change and growth for businesses of all sizes.”

The NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo intends to educate and inspire value-added resellers and managed service providers. The conference and exposition provides a great venue for company leaders to make connections, and find new directions.

“The Channel Company understands that cloud computing is driving ISVs, VARs, MSPs, and other IT service providers to rethink their strategy and business model”, notes Falcon. “This event brings the experts and advisors together in one place for an intensive learning and networking opportunity.”

Registration for the NexGen Cloud Conference & Expo is open, with pre-registration discounts available until June 6, 2014 at www.nexgencloudcon.com/.