Category Archives: Technology

Recommendations for SMB and Mid-Market Enterprises

February 7, 2022   Technology   No comments

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and contract terms. In cloud computing, customers give up some control to the vendor. When evaluating on-demand versus on-premises options, review the fine print of the contract terms before making decisions, and get answers to the following questions:

  • Does the contract require an upfront long-term commitment?

  • How easy is it to change the number of users? What penalties or per-user price changes are associated with these changes?

  • Does the SLA supporting the uptime guarantee for these business-critical applications of at least 99.5%?

  • What security features are supported?

  • Investigate cloud vendor’s disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

  • What options and penalties does the vendor provide if you terminate the service? For instance, if you terminate the contract, how do you get your data back?

    • Address data security concerns upfront. Understand how the cloud vendor stores data, who can access it, and what safeguards the vendor has established to ensure that data is only accessed by authorised personnel. The vendor should be able to provide an audit trail on data access.

    Application customisation requirements. Most SaaS applications are customised via configuration, instead of source code customisation. For affordable customisation of cloud computing solutions, aim for the 80/20 rule. Can the solution can get you at least 80% of what you need, and how much needed customisation cost?

    Customers with very heavy customisation requirements may want to consider a packaged inventory software solution to achieve deeper customisation or SaaS technology implementation and customisation via third-party.

    Invest more upfront in the evaluation and selection process. Most companies are under-investing when it comes to thoroughly evaluating business solution requirements and options. Seek the help of independent consulting organisations to better understand the total cost of on-demand and o-premise options as they relate specifically to your company’s unique needs and budgetary constraints.

    Carefully consider the benefits provided by a third-party VAR or SI. Many cloud computing vendors offer customers the option of purchasing the solution and consulting and support services directly from the vendor, or through a VAR or SI. In some cases, VARs and SIs may be a better fit for your company than the vendor in terms of their ability to provide industry-specific customisation, integration with existing applications, migration of data from existing applications, training and coaching for ramping up usability.

    Assess the trade-offs of deploying an integrated suite vs. integrating applications from multiple vendors. With an integrated suite, all core management applications run on a common code base, and share the same database, providing a single, integrated system of record. This means that many front and back offices workflows are pre-integrated, enabling a higher degree of integration “out-of-the-box”, additional custom coding or integration connectors and frameworks.

    However, organisations that are happy with an existing front or back office solution may find it less disruptive and costly to integrate new functionality from another vendor, rather than to simultaneously deploy an entirely new front and back office suite.

    Conclusions

    By packaging all of the application software, IT infrastructure and services together in a Web-based, multi-tenant subscription model, cloud computing vendors have the ability to contain variable costs much more effectively than packaged software vendors-and pass these savings along to customers.

    SMB and mid-market enterprise resource planning need solutions that enable them to meet their business goals, and also help them to conserve capital and reduce ongoing costs. Although one size does not fit all, for many customers, cloud computing business solutions can help organisations to achieve these requirements, and provide added flexibility to scale as business demands require.

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    No More Emailing Blues; My Free SMTP Server is on!

    February 5, 2022   Technology   No comments

    The workings of modern emailing over the years had been a trade secret to select esoteric circles—network administrators, email providers, SMTP server providers and the suchlike. Netizens at large are found wanting when ironically it’s this group that has more to do with emailing than anyone else.

    Under the hood, emailing, in broad strokes centers around:
    1) SMTP Server
    2) DNS Server
    3) POP 3 Server

    Smtp Server: The Smtp Server (or the Smtp email server), the most important cog in the wheel, is where email transfers actually come off. When you send an email, your email client directs it to the Smtp server.

    Now, your email client shares classified email information—the sender address, recipient’s address, and the body—with your SMTP server. Your host Smtp server may push for connections with several Smtp servers before delivering the email.

    The Smtp mail server breaks the recipient’s email address into domain and personal address (jim@yourdomain.com; yourdomain.com is the domain address while jim is the recipient id). Then it opens out to the DNS server asking the IP address for recipient’s domain.

    The sender’s Smtp server then connects to the recipient’s SMTP, and passes on all it received from the email client. The recipient SMTP analyses the domain address and after verification, passes the email to POP3 server for dropping into addressee inbox.

    If the verification fails or doesn’t come out right, the POP3 server sends a failure notice which reaches the sender following the same order, but in the reverse.

    If somehow your smtp server fails to link to the user’s SMTP, your email stays queued up and on your smtp server, which repeats its efforts periodically to have the email delivered. Most smtp servers have dedicated program for this which give up resending after sufficient time (4-5 days) elapses.

    Should this happen, a notification in your inbox keeps you looped!

    Universal SMTP Server
    Conventionally, your host SMTP server is set up by your ISP, which means, for every SMTP access, you should be routed through your own ISP. While this quite prudent otherwise, it does pave big issues on the go.

    ISPs change with networks and as you move around, network swops make the order of the day. This creates a big dent in your chances to link to your ISP’s SMTP server. A way out may be to attune your device to every network ISP, but it is grossly implausible to achieve this manually.

    A universal smtp server is the way to go about this. Such a server is immune to network barriers and readily connects to ISPs around the globe. You can stay tied to your emails anywhere you move.

    Mysendmail Free SMTP server
    The Mysendmail free SMTP server works across popular email clients no matter your location or network. Outlook Express, Eudora, Gmail…you get to access your accounts on the most noted platforms, period!

    This raving quick free SMTP server knocks out SMTP connections by dozens. Email transfers hence turn out really fast, and extremely secure on the SSL encryption levels. The user interface is a breeze; the free SMTP server program is a freeware so there is no reason not to download and try it!

    To know more about Mysendmail Free SMTP Server, and how to get your device up for the service, please visit:

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    Cloud Computing Shifts the TCO Discussion

    February 4, 2022   Technology   No comments

    The cloud computing model can help companies conserve cash and focus limited resources on the business, instead of reacting to IT infrastructure-related fire drills. In the cloud computing model, vendors provide Web-based access to applications as a service, through a subscription pricing model. This eliminates the need for customers to buy, deploy and manage IT infrastructure and solutions. Vendors take responsibility for everything: the servers, storage, operating system, database, business software, updates, migration, power and cooling, data center space, and support services. As a result, cloud computing shifts the IT burden from the customer to the cloud computing application vendor.

    Cloud computing vendors can provide these benefits because they’ve built their solutions as Web-based services from the ground up. Instead of building their solutions to run in-house, as a separate, individual instances for each customer, they architect their solutions for a one-to-many, or multi-tenant model. This means that they can run thousands of customers on a single instance of the database and application software. By optimising their business solutions for this shared environment, they can achieve efficiencies throughout the solution lifecycle that would be difficult for on-premise vendors to achieve.

    Lean and mean IT

    Headquartered in Slovakia, the U.S. division of this security software firm has grown from 1 to 135 employees over the past 10 years. The division had began by using multiple brands of packaged software for accounting, contact management and reporting functions. But as it grew, the organisation wanted tighter integration across functions, better reporting, and an easier way to provide access to an increasing number of remote employees. It also wanted to keep upfront capital and ongoing support costs low. “The fact that there was little or no infrastructure or internal support required drove us to a software-as-service solution,” according the firm’s Business Systems Director. Since deploying NetSuite in 2006, the company has kept IT “lean and mean”, and “the single system, real-time view of customers helps our sales and support teams to offer better service to customers”.

    Why does TCO matter?

    In the IT industry, Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is used to calculate the total cost of purchasing (or in the case of cloud computing, subscribing to), and of operating a technology solution over its useful life. TCO provides a realistic and holistic measure of the long-term costs required to acquire and operate technology solutions. Return on investment (ROI) is another method to evaluate and prioritise technology investments in a company. This measure is typically used to compare investments that uncover new top line revenue and growth opportunities. However, ROI tends to be more subjective in nature than TCO, because ROI looks at business benefits, which often cannot be measured as objectively as costs.
    Hurwitz & Associates views TCO as a preferred method to compare technology investments when two solutions provide roughly equivalent benefits over the solution lifecycle, but have different types of costs associated with acquisition, maintenance and operation. For these reasons, a TCO comparison offers a more tangible assessment of the total costs involved in deploying cloud-based SaaS and on-premise business solutions.

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