cloud computing | Jason Palmer, CPA, CITP

Traditional software applications like Microsoft Office, Microsoft Outlook, Quickbooks, and Contact Management, like ACT! are installed locally on the Computer. One downloads an installation program or inserts a CD/DVD to load the software application to the computers’ hard drive.

Slimmed down versions are available via “The Cloud” in a format called “Software as a Service” or SaaS for short. Examples of Word Processing, Spread Sheet, Presentation, and Email applications, entirely web based would be Microsoft Office365, Microsoft Live and Google Docs. SalesForce and SugarCRM are examples of full featured Contact Management and Sales Cycle software that are entirely web based. Quckbooks and TurboTax have complete Online Versions as well.

There are definite advantages to both types of offerings depending on the circumstances. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications are usually completely inaccessible if there is no Internet Access. For the true “Mobile Warrior” traditional, locally installed applications may still be the way to go as they guarantee access to applications and data at all times. Many SaaS offerings have or will have shortly, applications which can be installed locally that will provide the ability to access data when not connected to the Internet.

If one has a number of desk based employees coupled with a number of incidental technology use employees such as shop floor personnel, call center staff, and anyone else who should have Corporate Email and perhaps some Word Processing capability to stay connected, but the cost of a dedicated computer is prohibitive, then Software as a Service may be the optimal solution. If the average Office Application Suite costs approximately $300 (Microsoft Office Standard Edition) per seat, then it starts to make economic sense to look at a Software as a Service Online Application Suite in either the Free or Nominal Monthly Subscription cost basis.

A number of factors affect the pricing but many Small Businesses can get by with the Free Editions of the Suites (Google Docs and Microsoft Live) and for those that need more features prices start as low as $4 for Email or $6 or $8/month for a Basic Suite and go up to $22/Month for a Microsoft Premium Suite which include a fully licensed copy of Microsoft Professional 2010 and Voice Integration with the Microsoft Communications Server. All Microsoft plans include access to a custom RIM Hosted version of the Blackberry Enterprise Server for seamless Blackberry Connectivity and full Active-Sync support for Android and Apple IOS (iPhone/iPad/iTouch) devices.

Google Docs (Apps) are free for individuals and small teams while Google Apps for Business start at $5/month ($50/year) for the Full Featured Suite (Gmail, Docs, Calendar) or $10/month which includes the addition of email archiving, retention policies, and E-discovery which can be beneficial to companies that must follow compliance policies.

The key philosophical difference between Google Apps and Microsoft Office is that Microsoft wants their offering to be an extension of the Microsoft Office Servers and Applications already installed in your corporate environment. Google Apps just wants to make you instantly more productive with zero capital infrastructure cost outlay.

Cloud Office Application Suites

Microsoft Live – http://www.live.com – (Consumer Oriented)
Microsoft Office365 – http://www.office365.com

Google Docs – http://docs.google.com – (Consumer Oriented)
Google Apps for Business – http://www.google.com/apps/business

Cloud Accounting Applications

Quickbooks Online – http://quickbooks.intuit.com
TurboTax Online – http://turbotax.intuit.com

Cloud CRM – Customer Relationship Management

SalesForce – http://www.salesforce.com
SugarCRM – http://www.sugarcrm.com

Bitnami Cloud Hosting is offering a free developer account which will allow you to manage and host one free Amazon EC2 micro server instance for a full year at no charge. Included are the free usage tiers for Amazon S3, Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Elastic Load Balancing, and Amazon Web Services data transfer.

Translation: The Bitnami Cloud Hosting Management Portal coupled with Amazon EC2 Services enables fast and easy one click creation over 20 ready-to-run applications which include the most popular content management systems like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal; customer relationship management systems including SugarCRM and the wiki environments DokuWiki and MediaWiki. For a list of presently supported Apps available for deployment through the Bitnami Cloud Management Portal, click here.

Need to run more than one Application? No problem. Bitnami Cloud Hosting makes it easy to install multiple applications on the same Amazon EC2 Server instance.

Some major advantages of using the Bitnami Cloud Hosting Management Portall to manage Amazon EC2 are the Automated Backups as well as the One-Click Server Restore capabilities. Backup scheduling can be set to weekly, daily, or even hourly and it uses an incremental model to save on storage costs. Only changed data is added at each scheduled backup. Restoring a corrupted or damaged server to the time of the last backup takes only minutes.

Although not an issue during use of the first year free period, Bitnami supports Server Scheduling to shut down and start up the Server instances that may not be in use after business hours thereby saving money by only running applications when needed. Bitnami and Amazon hope that the free first year trial users will upgrade to higher level paid accounts and to that end, Bitnami offers an excellent tool for estimating Cloud computing costs on Amazon both on a per hour and per month basis.

Bitnami supports the ability to make “Templates” of specific configurations and customizations of Servers. This enables a quick spin-up of a copy of an existing server for new projects without having to start from scratch each time.

Bitnami Cloud Hosting is independent of the Amazon Web Services account so if the Bitnami Managment Control Panel service is canceled, all existing Amazon Servers and Backups remain.

To learn more about Bitnami Cloud Hosting Services, click here.

To learn how to sign up for an Amazon Web Services Account to work with Bitnami Cloud Hosting, click here.