Believe it or not Cloud Computing will celebrate its 50th birthday next year. Of course like most conceptions it did not know it was being conceived neither did it know what it would grow up to be.
Cloud computing, in a nutshell, is the supply of computing applications and programmes designed to assist businesses make the best of productivity and communications. This is accessed from a remote server via the internet (the cloud) saving the company time and money on buying and maintaining their own IT systems.
In 1962 a gentleman by the name of Ross Perot suggested to a company, Southwestern Life, that they allow another company, Collins Radio, to make use of their idle computer time for Collins Radio's own use; thus creating cloud computing by action if not by name. Southwestern Life received payment for the use of their computer power and Collins Radio saved money by avoiding the need for capital input for their IT systems. Mr Perot received a fee for facilitating and integrating the computer systems use. All three benefited from the arrangement.
Both Google and Microsoft have entered the market as Cloud Computing Service providers with Google Apps and Microsoft 365; there are no prizes for guessing which company owns which product.
Microsoft 365 is based around their favourite applications i.e. Outlook, Word and Excel plus various other applications needed to ensure smooth running of the service. Although the applications are mostly reliable MS products that have be honed over many years the majority of them have to be installed on the individual user's computer so flexibility and ease of access can cause problems.
The minimum contract is for a year and dependent on how large your company is costs run from £4.00 to £17.75 per user per month. There is plenty of information available on the breakdown of service plans and costing but for a ball park figure of 25 users per year @ £6.50 the annual sum is £1950.00.
Google Apps is based around a suite of applications created by them and includes Google Docs, Gmail, Gcal and various other applications to keep businesses on top of productivity. All these applications are accessed through the users account and are retained on the server and may be accessed from any computer in the world; a big difference to Microsoft 365.
Another big difference is the way the service plan is put together; it is a very simple 'one size fits all' scenario. The cost is £3.30 per user per month. With Google Apps you can either sign up for a monthly or annual contract. Using the same ball park figures as above the total for a year is £990.00 on a monthly payment plan or £825.00 for an annual contract.
It seems Google Apps has the edge over Microsoft 365 with its monthly and annual pricing costs and a very simplistic pricing schedule. They also allow for a more flexible work experience as you can operate all your applications from another location.
For more information about Google Sites visit Ancoris who are are an authorised Google Apps Reseller offer Cloud Computing.
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