Cloud9 is a Microsoft Partner and also has strong relationships with Amazon, Google, Go grid and other Cloud vendors. We will implement a Cloud based solution that meets your specific needs and not just based on the specific offerings from a single vendor. We can help clients reap the benefits of Cloud Computing and the Software as a Service (Saas) concept today! Clients can achieve significant cost savings and operational efficiency by migrating in-house applications to the cloud and/or implementing third party Saas solutions such as Microsoft's On-Line Exchange. Two major advantages of hosting your data on the cloud include:

• Security - Data stored in the cloud through a large third party providers, such as Microsoft, Google or Amazon affords the client a level of security and protection which most small businesses could never cost justify. Due to the sheer scale of these offering they can offer enormous economies of scale in terms of security and data resilience.
• Accessibility - Data is accessible anywhere (with Internet connectively), from any device, at any time, day or night. This gives you total flexibility on when, where and how you access your data. It means you can access from the office, at home or whilst traveling without having the complexity of creating secure connections through the likes of a VPN. It also reduces Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity requirements. 

Cloud Computing 

"Cloud Computing" refers to the use of Internet based computer technology for a variety of services. It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis, at a fraction of the cost of provisioning a traditional Data Center based solution. All the costs associated with setting up a data center such as procuring a building, hardware, redundant power supply, cooling systems, upgrading electrical supply, and maintaining a separate Disaster Recovery site can be passed on to a third party vendor.

Since the customer is charged only for computer services used, cloud computing costs are a fraction of traditional technology expenditures.

Software As A Service

Software as a Service is a new software deployment model. Traditionally software applications are hosted on clients hardware within their premises. The client if forced to maintain both the hardware and software by performing continuous upgrades, patch releases, disaster recovery testing and software license management. Under Saas, a third party vendor will host the hardware and software in their data center and charge the client a standard monthly fee based on utilization for these services.

For example, Email has become a essential communication service for all businesses. Rather than every company hosting their own Email server (e.g. Microsoft Exchange server), third party vendors such as Microsoft are providing an Email service hosted in their data centers. Microsoft will charge a flat monthly fee for every Email account used by your business, which are accessible via the internet.

Gartner Quotes:

"Newly announced Microsoft software-as-a-service pricing and distribution for Exchange and Share Point -- coupled with robust pent-up demand -- will accelerate the transition away from premises-based collaboration software. … … Analysis Microsoft's newly announced collaboration Saas pricing is likely to generate substantial interest from enterprises seeking to cut costs or move away from premises-based collaboration deployments. The economics will be most appealing to small enterprises (those with fewer than 1,000 employees), which have the highest operational unit cost and generally can't provide the BPOS suite services internally for less than $15 per user per month".... Dated: July 2008

"Nine out of ten companies plan to grow their use of software-as-a-service (Saas) in the next year, according to a survey by Gartner.
More than one third of respondents (37%) plan to replace on-premises software with Saas to drive down total cost of ownership (TCO), Gartner found.

Those surveyed cited cost-effectiveness and ease of deployment as primary reasons for adoption. Other major drivers included replacing on-premises solutions that had not met performance expectation, or changes in sourcing strategy." ... Dated: Dec 2008

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