It’s All About The Data
It in early days of commercial IT, hardware was very expensive, so it was centralized and rationed. Data was locked up in mainframes where few people could access it. The evolution of mini-computers in the the 70s moved data into many departments. With the PC explosion of the 90s, data moved out to the desktop. Client/server system exploited the PC desktop, networked with other systems and provided access to many more users.
The Internet and the Web browser have helped define a universal way for people to access systems.
Now as we move into the era of “cloud” computing and fast networks, we all want to access data from many different devices and locations. The proliferation of mobile devices – laptops, net books, iPads and PDAs – makes it clear that it’s not about the hardware or applications – it’s all about the data.
The Industrialization of IT
Many organizations with unique, hand-crafted, IT operations are looking to industrialize those operations. Before the production and distribution of electricity was industrialized, many firms had their own in-house power-generating systems. Those firms migrated to the electric grid in the early 1900s, because they wanted the benefits of a widespread, repeatable function with predictable results to achieve far higher levels of productivity. Now, firms with in-house IT services are looking for ways to leverage industrialized IT.
Where to start? Web-based collaboration – workflow, email, calendar, shared files, tasks and contacts – is a good place to start. Few organization can say that their requirements for those services is unique. The IdoMail cloud powered by the EcoSuite software is an industrial-grade collaboration solution that meets and exceeds the requirements of most organizations.
“We never want another update from Microsoft again”
Microsoft executive Bob Muglia* said he was meeting with a chief information officer last year when the man grabbed him and said, “You don’t get it. We never want another update from Microsoft again.”
The man was frustrated by the software updates a corporate customer has to install if it uses Microsoft software — security patches, service packs, other bug fixes.
“I said, ‘Wow,’ ” recalled Muglia, president of Microsoft’s Servers and Tools business. “It was really at that moment I got it; I got what cloud computing was all about. What he was asking for was for me to deliver IT as a service.”
*Bob Muglia is president of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft.
What does it really cost to have an in-house email service?
Last year, Forrester Research published a report by Ted Schadler called, “Tier Your Workforce To Save Money With Cloud-Based Corporate Email.”
This chart in that report caught my attention:
These costs are based in a large firm of about 100,000 employees. Smaller firm will typically pay more per mailbox because of higher license fees and lower staffing efficiency.
Occasional users cost about 1/3 of “mobile executives” because of mobile messaging, storage and higher staff costs. In addition, archiving would add about $4.50 to the monthly costs.
In a previous paper Ted laments:
It’s hard to figure out what email actually costs. We know because it took us months to track down all the costs. Even breaking out the email client software costs is difficult, particularly in an era of bundled pricing and maintenance costs for desktop licenses. And when you throw in complex server licenses, hardware managed by someone else far away, ever-accumulating storage, support services provided by other IT groups, and financial costs like deprecation and the cost of capital, it gets downright ugly.
I suspect that many organizations who take the effort to find their fully-loaded email costs will find them to be quite a bit higher that the char above.
For many organization moving to a cloud based email solution has the potential to save a lot of money. However, there are more benefits than just saving money:
- quickly and easily add new users
- have your IT team focus on IT challenges that are unique to your organization
- always being up-do-date
- use Operation Expenses (OpEx) budget rather than Capital Expense (CapEx) to pay-as-you-go
Are you prepared for the fourth wave of computing?
In 2005, Forrester researcher Christopher Mines wrote a paper called “The next big thing for IT” in which he talked about the “waves” of computing. That same topic has been addressed by a number of researchers and IT vendors over the years. In the wrong wave, a cool marketing slogan like “the network is the computer” does not make much sense. In the 4th wave, it’s too obvious to even state.
At my local book store, people are now buying electronic book readers, “the nook”, for just $149. It goes without saying that the nook comes with Wi-Fi (or 3G+Wi-Fi for $50 more). The same device without the network makes no sense.
Here is how I see the overlapping, major waves of computing:
- Mainframes, which achieved critical mass in commercial deployment in the late 1950s and 1960s.
- Minicomputers, which distributed computing beyond a centralized mainframe in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1990s and 2000s, UNIX based minicomputers dominated.
- Personal computers — further distributed computing to the desk and then the lap in the 1980s and 1990s. PCs went from office to home, from desktop to servers. Laptops became wireless and mobile computing was born.
- The open Internet and web-based media from the lap to the hand — smartphones (Android, iPhone, BackBerry, J2ME), mass-market cellular phones, tablets/iPads, e-book readers, game systems, etc.
Email/Collaboration: In-house vs hosted by EcoSuite?
Most IT organizations are under pressure to look at their budgets and ask if they if doing the right thing for the organization. Senior management are also asking, is IT our competitive advantage or another cost of doing business that should be optimized?
“Rather than just using the Internet to visit web pages, you can use it to run very sophisticated software” — Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google.Now is the time to ask if Email and Collaboration should be run in-house or hosted by a SaaS provider such as EcoSuite. Here are a few areas to consider when reviewing your options:
| In-House Implementation | EcoSuite Hosted Solution | ||
| Financial Investment | A large financial investment, (for hardware, software licenses, IT resources and more) is required. Maintenance costs may also be unpredictable. Utility costs are now significant. Physical space may also have a cost. | Initial costs are minimal. There is no need to purchase hardware or software and no need for added IT personnel. Your ongoing fees are low, predictable and easy to budget. If you grow or shrink, our solution grows or shrinks with you. | |
| IT Resources | Requires dedicated IT resources. Managing a typical email system for a 100 person company takes 85% of a senior technician’s time. | No dedicated IT resources required. User maintenance can be performed by a non-technical person. All system management is performed by EcoSuite. | |
| Deployment | Average 30 days to deploy an in-house messaging and collaboration solution with dedicated staff. | Get started quickly with the EcoSuite hosted environment. | |
| Reliability and Maintenance | Lack of redundancy and bandwidth, poor administration, delay in upgrades – any of these can cause security and performance issues. Servers crashing and email interruptions cause business delays and loss of productivity. | Updates performed in timely manner by our trained experts. Quality of service and technical support is provided. Our systems are fully redundant and backed up routinely. | |
| Security, Maintenance, Upgrades | Constant vigilance is required to combat viruses and SPAM, update servers. Upgrades may be delayed. Security solutions are costly and complex. | Security and mobility services are available on demand. Basic features are included with service and advanced features are available at low cost. | |
| 24/7 Support | Lack of support team after business hours? You may have to wait until the next business day for and IT Admin to come and help you. | Dedicated Support Staff are available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. If you have a problem, getting Support is just a phone call or an email away, regardless of where you are, the time of day or night, or the day of the week. |
Welcome to EcoSuite Blog
It’s the happiest moment for us to welcome the reader to our first born blog- the EcoSuite Blog.
Perhaps we got this platform to be most curious communication medium to express what we offer, how we are growing and how we make your life easier. Our unique service ( Idomail )will keep your organization more productive, secure, centrally controlled.
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Happy reading our blog!!!
