Moving to the cloud seems to be the buzz phrase of the year. Applications and services are hosted from the cloud, data is stored in the cloud – and servers are moving to the cloud. Everyone from your accountant to your graphic designer is likely to be using the cloud for some or all of these business processes. So does your business need to become more cloud oriented? What does that mean for you? What are the benefits and what are the potential pitfalls?
Proponents wax lyrical about access from any device, reduced reliance on on-site IT management and cost savings. But what about the time and effort to transition to the cloud? And how about the risk of reliance on your internet service to operate your business? And can you trust your cloud provider with the security and privacy of your data?
How do you consider the tradeoffs between cost, security, ease of management, vulnerability to far-away providers and ease of access? Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
For this event we have assembled a quality panel comprising two business owners who have tackled this issue in their own business – and an expert who has seen the issues as they unfold from a professional point of view:
Mark Greenslade: Mark is General Manager of Family Law Results, whose servers, data and key business processes have been operating in the cloud for some three years. Mark will share some of the roadblocks and successes in their journey to the cloud from the perspective of a management team who were not IT professionals when they took their first steps in a direction that was largely uncharted in the legal industry.
Philip Adamson: Philip is a director of OutSource IT, who deliver outsourced IT support to SMEs. Philip and his team have done quite a number of successful cloud migrations, but they are also now seeing businesses coming back OUT of the cloud in various areas because they went in without the proper information and preparation. Philip believes the media has a lot to answer for in regards the benefits and expectations around the cloud. Philip will share some of his experiences as an IT professional in this space.
Danielle Butler: Danielle is owner of Medical Uniforms New Zealand, whose staff operate entirely in the cloud using Unleashed, Xero and Zoho – as well as free cloud based services like MailChimp. Danielle likes to challenge the status quo of how a business should look – and she “has her head in the cloud”. If you’re curious about Cloud technology and finding ways of utilising it to make your business better, come and hear what Danielle has to share.
This event will be held at the BNZ Partners facility on Constellation Drive, North Harbour at 5:30pm on Thursday 17 October 2013 – and will run through to 7:30pm on the night.
As always for Business Owners Forum events, this session will be free of charge and completely free of sales pitches from the supporters or the panelists. And there will be pizza, beer and wine to lubricate quality discussion.
Business Owners Forums are held monthly – alternating between Whangarei, Albany and Newmarket venues. This event will be repeated in Newmarket on Wednesday 20 November.
If you’d like to attend this event, email Fraser Hurrell before this event fills up. And if you’d like to be included on the invite list for future events, just add your contact details in the box to the right.
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