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Reliability and Cloud Computing. Do they go hand in hand? You would think businesspeople morphed into meteorologists with as much talk there is about the cloud these days. Cloud computing is trending among enterprises worldwide, and for good reason. From something simple like collaboration applications to things as advanced as data center hosting or Wholesale VoIP, moving to the cloud just makes sense. Not only does it save money on maintenance and overhead costs, it also increases operational efficiency. Even with these obvious advantages not everyone is high on the change due to negative past experiences. Like with most new things, cloud computing fell victim to growing pains. Early adopters of these forward-thinking solutions were often prone to downtime, lack of network reliability and in some cases the loss of data. Yes there were issues at first, but there are issues with any technology starting out. The Wright brothers didn’t go from Kitty Hawk to London on their first flight. Things weren’t perfect when they started and change came gradually, but the important part is that it eventually arrived. Cloud computing is the same way, and that change has arrived. Broadband is so universally accepted as customary when it comes to Internet speed we often take it for granted. Two decades ago the idea of having speeds that fast were the farthest thing from most minds since there was little need for it. What came with this growth isn’t all pictures of your friend’s lunch and videos of cats. Infrastructure on the backend was added to and improved upon, making it more reliable. Those advances are continuing today with companies shoring up their existing equipment and even partnering with cities to install ultra-fast gigabit fiber optic networks. Solidifying the underlying network is not the only change that’s been made recently. Customer demand has increased network reliability for cloud computing not only over the path that is traveled, but also in the sky where it actually exists. It’s easy to overlook equipment when it comes to the cloud, but that aspect is critically important to reliability. In terms of weather, the actual water droplets clouds consist of are servers and how well these servers are maintained directly correlates to how reliable your service is. Redundancy in the server is the primary way to provide stability. Most providers have multiple servers within a single location in case one fails. This redundancy gives customers a peace of mind. Geo redundancy goes a step further by having servers at multiple locations. An example of this usefulness was when Hurricane Sandy hit New York in 2012. Some server locations for IP Telephony services were damaged disconnecting the enterprises relying on their products, but those protected by geo redundancy merely switched the operations to a new location with little to no downtime. Verifying that your services are backed by a geo redundant network is like getting insurance without the premium and acts as a failover in case of emergencies. Physical improvements to equipment and systems have them leaps and bounds better than when introduced. If that’s not enough to ease your mind you can also protect yourself with a contract with the provider. Look for strong service level agreements (SLAs) and some type of verifiable network monitoring on the backend, because no matter where you go problems will arise. Lowering the probability and the response to an issue is what truly determines reliability.
Author Box: Momentum is one of the best hosted VoIP solutions providers that offer a wide range of services for residential, small business, and enterprise level use. Along with other services like unified communications, hosted contact center, SIP trunking and virtual fax service.