If you’re a user of cloud services, then the likelihood is you’re a convert of the most useful data backup and access technique to emerge in decades. If you’ve not used it yet, perhaps learning that it can be just as useful when used on your mobile devices might be the fact that tempts you into trying it out. Either way, we’ve collected five of the smartest uses of mobile cloud computing together and provided our recommendations for how to use them well.

1) Data backup.

There’s nothing worse than realising that you’ve reset your handset (for whatever reason) without backing anything up. All those photos, contacts, and so on, are all gone forever for the average user. Avoiding this couldn’t be simpler, especially now that handsets like Apple’s have iCloud built into them to facilitate this exact sort of use. You’ll never fear for the safety of your photos and numbers again.

2) Presentations.

Ever arrived at a meeting only to find out your USB key is missing, or that the file needs a quick tweak before it appears before your clients? Cloud host that slideshow, edit it on your iPhone if needed, then simply use the phone to get it onto the device showing the presentation. Smartphones have the capability to perform all of these tasks easily, and it also means that the presentation will follow you around on the cloud the entire time you’re at that crucial conference.

3) Collaboration.

Cloud computing’s most common use, next to backing up files, is to assist those who are collaborating on a project from multiple locations remote from one another. On mobile devices this advantage is increased, as someone collaborating on a song or an advertisement could, for example, submit revision notes and have the revised versions of said files appear on their phone almost immediately. It’s an invaluable way of keeping track of how a project with file output is progressing when you’re away from your desk.

4) Gaming.

Being able to play a cloud-hosted multiplayer strategy game is an interesting concept, mainly because it keeps that “LAN” feel in that it’s your game, your rules, running on your cloud space, but you’re able to play asynchronously via the cloud. It’s an experimental concept but the idea of cloud-hosting game data is nothing new – online services like Steam and the Playstation Network have been offering cloud-saving for some time.

5) Lack of Stress.

This is the classic reason given by cloud converts, and it’s never going to be less true. If you’re using the cloud, any IT issues on the server end aren’t your problem, and this is a big boon to those who want to keep a lot of space in the office and want to be able to see a file on their phone, then know that if anything goes wrong with it they’ve not got to spend an hour on the move tracking down their IT staff and requesting a fix. It also means no server maintenance salaries, and this goes for mobile email setup as well, so there really isn’t any excuse not to at least try it out.

Author Bio:

Jaime Wills is a freelancer who concentrates on the internet, cinema, alternative music and keeping up-to-date with companies like O2, Apple, and Panasonic. Aside from blogging she is a fan of playing PS3  and she’s always available on Google+

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Optimizing CRM benefits: Mistakes to avoid

CRM has proved to be a powerful business intelligence software and yet many companies complain that they have failed to achieve desired goals through it. Unfortunately the number of CRM project faux pas is quite high. Companies make mistakes during planning, implementation and even during use which lead to unsatisfactory results. Success of CRM software, whether legacy of web based CRM, demands extensive planning before and during implementation and also depends heavily upon user adoption. Issues with any of these key aspects may lead to CRM disappointment. Below we have listed some of the very common mistakes that companies make (but, which can easily be avoided) during and after software implementation.

Shortsightedness: Organizations often fail to look beyond immediate benefits. They fail to realize the true implications of having customer relationship management tools installed in their firms. As a result, they don’t make enough plans to achieve their immediate as well as long term business goals. Before you decide about implementing CRM software in your organization discuss your business objectives over with the consulting firm.

Not involving people: Often the decision regarding customer relationship management system is a disconcerted decision by the top management without true involvement of the people likely to use the application. As a result, what the management thinks as a right decision fails to deliver in actual context.

Emphasis on technology: There is a general tendency to choose the most hip technological solution for the organization. Technology is important but more important is your customer and to some extent your team who will be using the software. Technological faculty of your team therefore is an important determinant of the technology. Web based CRM software has allowed small businesses to abandon worries about conducting extensive training programs for their workers. Most of these are easy to use, simple applications delivered through cloud.

Restricted use: Many organizations use CRM at micro-level management. But customer management software can offer lot more insight on your actual business performance than only managing your contacts. With most modern CRM software you can automate your sales and marketing process, gain social insight and generate customized performance reports.

Non-incremental use: Ideally CRM software implementation plan should be rolled out in phases. But many organizations try to go all out with the project which leads to failure. Modern customer management tools come loaded with lots of features and offer comprehensive business solutions. However, a business may not need all the features available in the software. Keeping the UI simple will lead to improved user acceptance.

Using as personal information manager: Some use CRM system to manage their personal information. Lack of awareness can be cited as one of the reasons for this. Employees may have had a personal management system earlier so when the new system is introduced they continue using the new application as well in their old ways. These people need to be upgraded about the improved features of customer management software.

Not using the data: The application is designed to offer in depth insight on your business operation. But often organizations don’t fully realize the usefulness of that information and as a result, they fail to derive the best out of the customer management software. Most customer management software applications come with various analytical tools that can be used in analyzing the data to formulate more effective sales strategies or customer management strategies.

Ignoring mobility: Availability of smartphones and tablets has ensured that you can always stay in touch with your sales team while they are out in the market. Not making the application interface available on their mobile devices will lead to loss of business. SaaS CRM software is ideally designed for thin clients and therefore offers best mobility and interoperability.

Ignoring integration: Many companies ignore the importance of building an integrated enterprise atmosphere to derive the best from their enterprise application ecosystem. The customer management solution when integrated with business intelligent applications can offer 360˚ view on your customers.

Ignoring feedback: Often companies don’t bother to get enough feedback from the users and customers on the performance of their software. This leads to alienation from customers and users. Eventually the software becomes a standalone system and a burden on company’s IT budget.

Author bio: Patricia Jones is an online writer and market researcher. She takes interest in writing about Web based CRM software. She has vast experience in writing product reviews and market news.

Cloud offers a plethora of advantages:

• High-level computing services
• Flexibility and accessibility
• Location independent availability of data
• Low total cost of ownership and easy pay-as-you-use  model
• Utility-based time-sharing model
• Round the clock availability and support from provider
• Upgradability
• Sustainability
• Faster deployment and integration
• Secured data storage and manageability

Businesses are increasingly looking for cloud remedies to deploy an agile, flexible and scalable solution that will help them in lowering IT infrastructural expenses; ensures availability of data and resolves problems with data storage.  But in order to achieve cloud optimization applications need to be migrated to cloud and for that one needs to check cloud compatibility as well as suitability of an application in a hosted environment.

Migrating applications from an existing version to an upgraded interface wasn’t as acute as it has become with the introduction of cloud. It has become more complex in nature now that requires multilayer treatment.

• Not all applications developed are suitable for cloud environment
• Challenges in migrating legacy software and in-house applications to cloud
• Application that is suitable in one cloud setup and not in the other

As a result, users need an extensive cloud migration strategy in place. The leading cloud based service providing vendors are constantly upgrading their services and releasing new versions of their products incorporating users’ feedback to make the migration process smoother.

Challenges likely to occur during cloud migration are:

• OS compatibility check and redressal
• Assessing compatibility of the virtualized platform
• Testing application migration in target interface
• Middleware analysis and dependency check
• User access and profile management

Hybrid migration model is a popular approach to test the water before migrating applications to cloud platform. But hybrid model also presents problems in forms of managing multiple target platforms, technologies, and vendors, which has made manual approach of migrating desktop applications to cloud nonviable. This has prompted users to adopt automated application compatibility testing and remediation approach for smarter migration to cloud.

Automated application testing

An application testing software analyzes the behavior of an application across different OSs and virtualized platforms; offers insight on application compatibility and helps in saving time. It tests application installation profile and usage in determining its compatibility on a certain environment. Moreover, the software allows users to test in-house and legacy software against virtualized environment.

Automation testing software generates compatibility reports that offer insight to technical staff on application behavioral issues and help devising an informed strategy for successful application migration. The report provides insight on cost and manpower requirements for optimum management and realignment of resources. It also let you get a glimpse of user reaction of application migration.

Automated application remediation software let you check compatibility of legacy and in-house applications against newly adopted virtualized environment. It generates comprehensive reports and segregates applications in groups namely- applications ready for the transition and applications that need special adjustments before transitioning to cloud.

Author Bio:  Charles Smith is associated with the IT industry for over a decade now. He is a senior consultant with a California based company that offers cloud computing solutions to companies across industries. Charles has vast experience in implementing cloud computing projects and offering consultation to companies in mapping their ways in cloud environment. He has worked long in designing enterprise cloud based applications.

The below infographic shows the state of SaaS industry.

Cloud based applications are vital for businesses of any size, especially as most executives and managers will now travel with their tablet and are using it as an essential professional tool.

What are the most vital applications that businesses should be using?

Pocket Cloud

This app is easily the best way to access and control a desktop computer from a mobile device. Even in the modern information age, some of us will still work on dedicated stations and forget to e-mail a file or save it in the right place.

Pocket Cloud is for the times when this happens and you need to retrieve a file quickly or launch an app on the host system, and is definitely a business essential.

Google Drive

While a number of cloud storage options such as Dropbox and Sky Drive offer great functions, Google Drive is the leader when it comes to meeting business needs.

The key is that users can link Gmail accounts to their own drive, allowing access for ‘collaborators’ to view and update documents as necessary without bouncing e-mails back and forth.

Toggl

There are a number of applications that allow for task and time tracking, however Toggl is probably the easiest to use. Business managers everywhere can create task lists, designate how much time they should take to complete, and track their completion.

Toggl is useful both for businesses looking to boost efficiency, as well as for individuals such as freelancers who need to track the time spent on a project for billing purposes.

Outright

Financial management and accounting is something that needs to be done for a business to survive, but it can often be time consuming or expensive to hire someone to do it for you. Outright will do a lot of the calculations for you, giving you a real time view of income and expenditure, what your bottom line profit is, and how much tax you will be liable for based on those earnings.

The mobile businessperson who needs their numbers on the move simply has to use this application!

Cloud based apps are changing how the business world operates, and those who don’t embrace their use will be left well behind.

Author : This article is written by Posterita, creators of a revolutionary POS (point of sale) system that allows retail chains to manage operations from a simple cloud-based app.

Following is a list of the mosthighly rated web hosting services, according to our research:

1      iPage Secure Hosting: With lucrative selling points such as free domain registration, free site building tools, free online store and more for dollar 99 a month, iPage is rocking the Internet.

2      Justhost.com: Positioning themselves as a do – everything system, justhost.com is a favorite of novice and beginning webmasters. In addition to all the bells and whistles, they also offer 24/7 support.

3      Fat Cow: With its cute logo and cow references fat cow will make you smile. In addition, they offer legendary customer support around the clock and lots of extras such as a shopping cart.

4      Blue Host: Blue Host takes care to build up its own systems from scratch. Is known to be very responsive, quick to update, and customizable to the client’s exact needs.

5      Inmotion Hosting: Inmotion is a more advanced hosting platform. While it can easily accommodate the needs of bloggers and small business, it also offers scalable solutions such as dedicated servers to meet the needs of advanced clients.

6      Hub: known as an excellent host for people who like to pick up the phone and talk to a customer service representative. In addition, Hub backs its services with the 90 day money back guarantee.

7      Host Gator: This host offers hosting plans for everybody, From bloggers who just need a little bit of bandwidth, to major businesses that require their own dedicated servers, Host Gator can deliver. In addition, people love their control panel.

8      Accuweb Hosting: Accuweb Hosting is a powerful and nimble host that can do everything from acting as a major companies de facto IT department to hosting a low traffic blog. With clear pricing and advanced solutions this company continues to grow.

9      Go Daddy: One of the biggest brands in web hosting, Go Daddy offers every service under the sun. Major companies and small, personal accounts are equally accommodated.  One of the best features of Go Daddy is the responsive and kind customer service.

10   Start Logic: With great prices and easy control panels, start logic has an excellent reputation. Start logic offers site building tools, shopping carts, and a 30 day money back guarantee.

Clouded Truths

The myths and misinformation surrounding the cloud have deeply wounded its reputation and may contribute to the slow growth of the cloud in the health care industry. Many of the misperceptions are the complete opposite in truth. For example, many believe identity management and data in the cloud isn’t secure. In fact, information is usually more secure with VPS hosting, safeguarded by encryption in stark contrast to the oftentimes unencrypted data on the premises, according to CEO of Fischer International, Andrew Sroka, in article on HealthCareITNews.com. Some health professionals are hesitant to incorporate cloud computing into their services because of the major infrastructural overhaul it requires—again, this is another false belief. The integration of cloud-based identity management services with present IT systems can be executed smoothly without any significant changes.

Cloud Barriers

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) poses one of the largest obstacles for cloud computing to overcome. Author of “The History and Evolution of Healthcare in America,” Tom Loker, stated the rules and regulations must be updated in order to incorporate cloud computing on Beckershospitalreview.com. The HIPAA was created prior to cloud usage and, as with all technology, must be adjusted to suit modern changes. Another significant barrier for the cloud is the healthcare industry’s institutional focus, rather than centered on the patients. There are a multitude of legal and foundational obstructions, continued Loker on Becker’s Hospital Review, that pop up with date exchange. Even with its setbacks, cloud usage is expected to reach $5.4 billion within five years, according to a report by research firm MarketsandMarkets.com.

Unclouded Benefits

Rapid Innovation: The scalability of cloud computing services engenders the constant improvement computing power, data and overall services with hardly any interruption to services. The rapidity and impressive power of operating in the cloud is a godsend for researchers who are now able to process enormous amounts of information to quickly produce results. Unparalleled collaboration between healthcare facilities. Data can be synchronized and shared across large institutions and between organizations for the benefit of doctors and patients.

Financial Savings: Pharmaceutical companies are utilizing the rental of computing power and paying for it hourly, a sort of pay-as-you-go computing, stated Matt Wood, head of scientific and technical computing at Amazon Web Services. The process removes an enormous financial burden and saves bundles of money; buying new computers and paying IT professionals to set them up is nearly rendered obsolete. Savings are further accrued as upgrade costs are no longer figured into the company’s budget.

Author Bio: Erin Briars The first in her family to work with computers, Erin is proud of her programming accomplishments and thrilled that her parents finally broke down and got a Kindle Fire.

As with last year, many attendees of the highly coveted event were keen to point out the continual weaknesses of the industry approach and how the lack of standards is bad for both consumers and businesses. Some were also frustrated by the lack of progression since last year and believe the future of the technology is dependent on the formation of a strong world-wide standard.

The growing dependence on the technology meant there were a whole host of new attendees this year including people from scientific and political backgrounds. These opened up new debates and made for a great conference, but are we truly any further and when will we see a European standard? Here are the thoughts of some of the attendees.

There is currently “a jungle of standards” in European Cloud Computing, said Zoran Stancic of the Directorate General for Communication Networks, a European body. Also Kagerman, the president of the German Academy of Science, stated that “we need open standards and reference applications for the cloud.” He stated that “we need to think about something urgent” to deal with several issues facing European Cloud Computing.

Kagerman stated there is an “urgent” need to address the possibility of new monopolies developing in Cloud Computing in Europe by implementing free-party access and exchange, address issues with Cloud storage site transfer that could degrade the integrity of stored data, and standardize Cloud Computing practices across the European Union in order to create a streamlined Cloud Computing environment that is easier to port, maintain and regulate.

Thomas Endres of the Association of IT Users stated that, currently, Cloud solutions are not modular or scalable. He stated that each Cloud service has its own storage size, resulting in size mismatches in case of transfer. According to Dieter Kempf, president of the high-tech association Bitkon, stated that the current Cloud approach is to make the user of Cloud storage responsible for the entire chain of data processing, compromising storage security, and called for the standardization of Cloud services in order to enable providers to exercise greater control over their own systems.

One of the issues hampering efforts at standardization of Cloud Computing within the European Union is the proprietary nature of the systems and practices used by individual Cloud Storage providers. Since systems and practices are nearly unique to each company, how they work is treated as commercially sensitive information, which hampers efforts at co-operation and the establishment of industry-wide standards.

Cloud Computing end users are being directed to the Trusted Cloud system, funded by the EU Economics Department at 50 million Euros. Last year, the Open Cloud Business Initiative (OCBI) was established with founding members including Microsoft, Open-Xchange, SUSE, Talend and Zimory. The similar Open Cloud Initiative seeks openness in Cloud Computing practices.

The realization of the extent of the vulnerability of commerce to a widespread loss of power has led to the promulgation of standards for the establishment of alternative arrangements to ensure the ability of enterprises to meet their Mission Critical needs.  For example, banking regulators require that critical operations be backed up by facilities that are located in areas that are not on the same power grid or watershed as the main operations.  Through the engagement of a Computer Room Power Company, the necessary backup facilities can be put in place in locations best suited to meet the needs of firms and fulfill regulatory requirements.

In addition to banks, hospitals are another example of facilities that require backup power.  News reports out of New York showed patients having to be moved out of hospitals that lacked power into other hospitals under dangerous conditions because adequate backup was not in place.  Fortunately, some hospitals had both power and space to meet the need, or some patients might have died.

Recognition of the necessity for putting in place alternative power arrangements has become sufficiently widespread that some areas have made a selling point of the fact that reliable services are available to companies that choose to establish facilities in these locations.  On the other hand, in some communities in the East, the frequency and extent of lengthy power outages has become a political issue.  The result is an increased demand for transparency regarding the arrangements firms have made to provide for the continuation of operations in the event of an untoward event, and these measures are necessary in the interest of the general public as well as investors in the affected companies.

Real Money

Estimates suggest that by 2017, people who use mobile gambling from tablets or smartphones will spend $100 billion annually. Given recent developments in app technology, more stable servers, and less expensive data plans, online gambling has been a growing trend. These gambling apps are being designed for Apple iOS and Android phones, giving the business a level of visibility that wasn’t possible in previous years.  Until recently, the majority of online gambling was done wagering on various sporting events, but now the industry is shifting to many traditional casino-style games.  The flexibility of games allows users to place bets on blackjack, poker, and even virtual slot machines.  Users sign up with credit cards and bet as much or as little as the games require.

There are other online games where the user pays money to play and gets a number of tokens to bet with, but they can’t capitalize on the winnings that they earn. With the newer games, the user can actually cash out and get a return on the money earned when playing the game. This offers extra incentive to users to continue playing – but the flipside is, just like users can earn real money, they can lose real money too.

Legal Issues

Online gambling is particularly popular in the UK and throughout Europe, but it isn’t regulated by the European Union, so each country has its own laws concerning the use of mobile gambling. In the US, gambling laws are mandated by each individual state, not the federal government, so there are no cohesive laws surrounding the new booming business of mobile gambling.  For example, Atlantic City, New Jersey, passed a bill this year that allowed the use of mobile gaming apps on casino property (in the suites, at the poolside, etc) but mobile gambling isn’t legal in Atlantic City proper. Mobile gambling platforms have to adhere to individual gambling laws in each state – but the problem occurs because laws specific to mobile gambling haven’t been developed yet, so the mobile companies have to navigate laws that were designed for gambling in casinos.

The bills will have to be altered to include legislation concerning the rise of online gambling. Each state will have to keep up with emerging technology and how to navigate the changing world of e-commerce and mobile gambling.