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| Gaining Confidence in the Cloud with SLAs |
Pop quiz: What’s the worst thing that could happen in the cloud? Microsoft certainly knows the answer. Especially after Azure, the company’s foray into cloud computing services, melted down for 22 painful hours in early March.
As the growth of cloud computing continues at a healthy rate of 20-30%, uptime and reliability have become the #1 issue for budget-restrained IT departments looking for ways to deliver new applications without investing in new software and servers. And Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are emerging to ease the transition.
As I mentioned in our last newsletter, Bi101's move into the cloud started with the migration of our messaging system from Exchange 2003 to Google Apps Premier Edition, as well as the move of all our accounting systems from QuickBooks to Intacct. What gave us the confidence to make these moves? SLAs. Google offers 99.9% availability, with service credits extended to paying customers if they dip below that level. Intacct's SLA comes in at 99.8%. With those kind of numbers backing-up the time and money savings SaaS offers, making the move to the cloud was a no-brainer.
Now that many companies are flocking to the cloud model, the question of uptime and reliability are front and center. And the faster providers can offer SLAs similar to Google and Intacct, the quicker enterprises will continue to move their mission critical functions to the cloud.
If you'd like to learn more about Google or Intacct or give either a try, feel free to visit our website at www.bi101.com or email us at sales@bi101.com. And for more on what's happening in the SaaS market, check out some of recent articles down in the "Learning Tools" section of today's newsletter.
Kevin Lalor
President & Founder
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| Product Updates & New Releases |
MAJOR RELEASE: Change Auditor v4.8 Now Available - Upgrade Today
ChangeAuditor, the industry's leading tool for auditing and securing Active Directory, File Systems and Exchange, recently released a major upgrade. Version 4.8 features new capabilities in service auditing, statistic and search result enhancements, filtering, and enhanced SQL auditing. Click here to view the release notes or email Bi101 today to learn about upgrading.
PRODUCT NEWS: Google Apps Premier Wins SaaS Showdown vs. Microsoft
in a recent showdown of web-based productivity suites, Google Apps beat Microsoft hands-down. According the ChannelWeb.com, "Google's emphasis on pushing into the cloud with strong functionality gives it a big competitive advantage against Microsoft." Try Google Apps Today >>
PRODUCT NEWS: Sync Google Apps with iPhones and Windows Mobile Devices
For workers on the go, having up-to-date calendar and contacts information is crucial. Google Apps now supports two-way push sync of calendar and contact information for Google Apps users with iPhones and Windows Mobile devices. Google's release also allows contact sync for mobile devices that support SyncML. Try Google Apps >>
PRODUCT NEWS: Intacct Named 2009 Finalist for Best Financial Software
Intacct, a leader in on-demand financial management and accounting software, recently announced it has been named as a finalist in the Software & Information Industry Association's (SIIA) 24th annual CODiE Awards in the "Best Financial Software Solution" category. More About Intacct >>
PRODUCT NEWS: PROMODAG Reports Scores Big in WindowsITPro Magazine
PROMODAG Reports for Exchange Server scored big in the February issue Windows IT Pro Magazine, getting 4 out of a possible 5 points in a comparison of Exchange Management tools. According to the magazine, PROMODAG is an excellent choice for SMBs and larger businesses. The product is simple and it works... with well over 100 reports and all the reports most requested by customers. More About PROMODAG >> |
| New Learning Tools |
News Articles: The Wall Street Journal, Business Week & NPR Focus Some Attention on the Cloud
Cloud computing has moved from a Silicon Valley buzzword to something that's captured the attention of businesses, consumers, and governments worldwide. Need proof? Check out these recent articles from the Wall Street Journal, Business Week (here and here) and NPR.
News Article: SaaS Perception Versus SaaS Reality
Think you know SaaS? There are a few things about the fast-evolving, on-demand software model that might surprise you. For starters, SaaS is becoming more flexible and more customizable than ever before. And while IT is usually stuck ironing out messy integration issues, this time there's help from new tools, strategies and specialists. Click here to read the CIO Magazine Article >> |
| Tip of the Month |
5 Recommendations for SaaS Service Level Agreements:
- Establish a system availability SLA, based on average monthly availability, with bonuses for overachieving and steep penalties for downtime.
- Establish a system response time SLA, based on average monthly response time, with penalties for slow system performance.
- Establish an error resolution time SLA, with different windows for different severity levels and penalties for not being responsive.
- Establish a fail over window for disaster recovery SLA in the case of a catastrophic failure.
- Ensure that you can get your data back if you ever decide to leave, and that the vendor will assist you in migrating away.
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