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Pay it Forward

I am a geek. I am not ashamed. I read Wired magazine. Hell no, I don’t just read it, I subscribe to it and I catalogue it afterwards…

And yet, despite my geek badge being worn out and proud, I just can’t shift a horrible feeling of anxiety I get every month as it falls through the letterbox. It is both puzzling and troubling.

Its very arrival envokes a feeling in me of mild terror. Terror induced by the notion that the world around me is moving at such a pace of quick quick, super speedy innovation-fueled light speed that I can never possibly keep up, be good enough, will never be able to invent the next big thing and never make the list of their top 100 startups of the year…

I can’t deny, it’s tiring. And then I remember, five minutes into leafing through the latest issue, it’s fine. No need to panic! I am not an inventor, developer, programmer or startup entrepreneur living in Silicon Valley or Silicon Roundabout but rather someone who has an interest and motivation to learn more and have an awareness of what is going on in the technological world around them.

By being aware of what is happening we can all benefit, especially in business. Have you ever had one of those experiences when by chance someone has advised you of a product or app, simply by chance, and it’s completely blown you away and made your life better? I know I have and one of the best examples of this happening can be passing on the information many of us know and utilise when it comes to The Cloud.

My Dad is a recent adopter of The Cloud and boy, and not only has it made his life better, his PC’s processing power is now about ten times quicker and his online life and data a hundred times more secure. It was merely a chance encounter and discussion that led to this and now there’s one happy man.

A simple step, a simple change can make all the difference to how we operate things that have seemingly been set in stone forever. You company can benefit from migrating to The Cloud, your data, hosted exchange emails and networks can be more efficiently managed, more secure and up to the minute in regards to the latest software.

You can sync multiple devices, give yourself the freedom to work wherever you want and allow members of staff to work remotely and on the move all whilst maintaining a secure and effective workflow.

It doesn’t all have to be about 3D printing and investing in the latest start-up, one simple change will suffice. So why not pay it forward? Share the love and make The Cloud that little bit more inclusive, there are a lot of people out there who will thank you for it – they just don’t know it yet.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 16th, 2013 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

The Old Guard

It’s been quite a week for Manchester United fans and unless you’ve been hiding under a rock you’ll have heard that Sir Alex Ferguson has announced his retirement as manager of the club when he’ll be leaving at the end of this football season. Until a replacement is found, the rollercoaster of emotions looks set to continue and just how do you follow in the footsteps of the most successful football manager… ever?

Well, I guess it had to happen at some point and no doubt the person who succeeds Ferguson will have to be thick skinned, that’s for sure.

So while it’s out with the old and in with the new at United, I got thinking about how easy it is to stick with The Old Guard and let ourselves get settled in our long established ways (even if sometimes they are extremely successful or just work plain well!). Because even though this period of transition at the club will have long lasting effects on the side, change, despite the fact that it’s scary, can only ever be a good thing and it’s something that I have come to accept as I am getting older.

One of the ways in which businesses succeed is by adapting and changing to new and different ways of working; adopting new technology, new techniques and looking to the future for inspiration and innovation.

A classic example of the fear of change is how larger and more established businesses are seemingly reluctant to migrate their businesses to The Cloud. This will come as a shock to some as it is now documented that this style of working is growing beyond all expectations with approximately fifty percent of companies using cloud computing and that is continuing to grow.

So, slowly and surely companies are coming on board but, as ever with change, these transitions are daunting and off putting yet they generally always seem to pay off with better outcomes and more efficient ways of working for everyone involved.

Here’s a quick checklist of what The Old Guard can expect to improve if they decide to move to The Cloud.

  • A safer and more secure work network with backed up data and files
  • A more efficiently run business with less overheads, less investment in large hardware and less need for specialised IT departments or members of staff
  • Communication tools and software that are up to date with current technology and security, with anti-spam filters, hosted exchange and multi-device syncing wherever your employees are working

And that’s just for starters dear reader, because The Cloud and your business, why, it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship and believe me, I could go on and on. So, meanwhile, no matter what went on before it, you can guarantee, if you get on board with change, the future is going to hold a lot more success and triumphs and you won’t need any kind of trophy to prove it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Superheros in The Cloud

Now it may not be your kind of thing, it might not exactly be your cup of tea but I have a small obsession to fess up to. Superhero movies. I love ‘em.

I realise it’s not quite French New Wave or the latest Lars Von Trier, but I’m not sorry, it is simply a bit of popular culture I just can’t get enough of. Give me The Dark Knight, The Avengers or Spidey, there is just no limit to how many I see, be it sequels or ‘re-imaginings’ there is no tipping point from absorbed to bored.

Just this week I got my fix and went to see Iron Man Three. I can safely say it was amazing. Funny, action-packed (as it should be) and probably my favourite of the three, so there’s a big recommendation from me – get yourself down the multiplex this weekend fanboys.

But what is it that holds our attention so raptly when it comes to superheroes, superpowers and superbad villiains? Is it the freak failure narrative through to redeemed hero for all men? Probably. Maybe I am overanalysing, as is my wont, and perhaps it’s just a jolly old ride that simply has mass-market appeal.  Definitely.

The sense of security and comfort in our ever childlike heads that one person or thing is making the world a safer place in these troubled times is of course incredibly appealing. When we find solutions to the world we inhabit it can only mean a sense of relief and a freedom that allows us to grow in other ways and relax to get on with the things that matter.

The security and infrastructure that The Cloud provides to small and medium businesses encourages this sense of superhero liberation.  Cloud computing enables business owners to get on with the important stuff, be more creative and as a result, become more successful in the long term.

The ever present imminent sense of disaster can now be swiftly swept to one side like Spidey swinging through the buildings of Manhattan, with The Cloud’s safety net preventing loss of data with regular back ups, ceasing blips in communication bymaking email communication easy and spam free with hosted exchange.

So while it may not be quite as glamourous as some superhero lifestyles, The Cloud allows all our alter-egos to grow and have a place in a secure online world, allowing creativity and companies to flourish against adversity. Sign me up for that summer box office smash hit, I’ll be the one queuing up over night.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 2nd, 2013 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Small Businesses Accelerating Growth in 2013 with Cloud Computing

Business Growth Charts
Have you ever found that one thing, that one tool or that one app just makes all the difference?

For women, it might be that one item of clothing or accessory that you might have picked up for cheap and all of a sudden it became indispensable, unique and necessary for EVERY outfit, ever.

For men it might be * sweeping generalisation and stereotyping klaxon! * a gadget or tool that makes all the difference to those DIY jobs of misery or perhaps something (a cable perhaps?!) that enables your PC to DO WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO. (I have no idea by the way, men and DIY are and always will be, a mystery to me…

Anyway as per usual my tangent-y mind has gone off to a random place but let’s get back to the point. Certain things, well, certain tiny unexpected things even, can make a huge difference and ain’t that awesome?

And now it seems small to medium business owners are making the Cloud and cloud computing their ‘one thing’.

The Cloud being the means and core of their business enterprise and the tool that essentially underpins everything else. For once it may have been seen as a forward thinking, early adopting stance to migrate your business cloud-wards, but now the Cloud has transcended innovation and become the very foundation of how we work.

It’s not just a means to an end, allowing users to become more efficient in their work, backing up their networks, data and communicating with much greater ease, but rather, it has become that tool, app or accessory that makes all the difference. Not just to the everyday workings but also to growth, scalability and future developments, which in turn translates to profitability and progress.

So by finding the correct tools like hosted exchange email programmes with its anti-spam filters and multi-device syncing, enables areas of your business to be managed with improved security and functionality and this in turn means you are able to spend more time and effort on things that benefit your customers and improve your service or output.

So do yourself a favour, get on board with the Cloud and email hosting to maximise your business’ time and output at the level it deserves – I guarantee, you won’t regret it.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 25th, 2013 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

A Guide to Cloud Computing for SMEs


On many of the work related courses, workshops and training days I have done over the years (and there have been some right old bobby dazzlers I can tell you…), many of them will advise, nay, preach to you, that one of the key ingredients in maintaining a fresh dynamism to your business or company, is constant evaluation and reinvention.

Cloud Checklist

Some of this may be in the form of a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) or a regularly updated marketing plan reevaluated on a six monthly basis, or perhaps visiting other companies to see how they operate and going on away days with colleagues to chat and get some perspective away from the everyday in a world that constantly moves, grows and changes all the time.

So yes, it is incredibly important to, for want of a better phrase, think outside the box for a long-term view, but it is also incredibly hard to schedule in these non-essential dalliances as daily deadlines and other priorities overtake the need for a little, ahem, blue sky thinking.

So perhaps there is another answer… perhaps training courses should be about making your working life more efficient in order to have time for other strategic musings. Maybe by making that daily list that little bit shorter you make that long game that little bit more successful?

Surely your business and time can be better spent if your energies are expended in other ways?  And one way in which I would advise for upkeep, beneficial timekeeping and increased productivity for SMEs would be through cloud computing.

  • Will it save your company time and money?  Yes
  • Will it help your business grow and be easily scalable?  Yes
  • Will it make your business more secure and resilient?  Yes

Information is synced, data is backed-up, it’s easy to set-up and it’s easy to adapt.

For many SMEs it means there’s no need for complicated IT infrastructure to be set up, no IT manager to employ and no need for in-house support systems. You migrate your data and network up and you benefit from the weight of these necessary evils being taken care of elsewhere.

Email programmes are operated by hosted exchange so there’s no-need to be tied down to your desk or office. Meanwhile Bruce in Australia can check in with what you are up and you can take your office mobile.

Cloud computing is an enabler for bigger and better things, empowering your company to make a change, giving staff freedom to think, roam and do.

All you have to do is book that team-building day in The Lakes. I’ll bring the post-its and flipchart markers.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 18th, 2013 at 10:44 am and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Spamalot? Spamaless


I used to turn my head for just one cotton-picking minute. Go to the photocopier perhaps, make a brew (not unusual for that to happen several times an hour…) or have a brief chat with friends or colleagues. I look away, take my eye off the ball and step away from my email inbox and on my return I have multiple spam emails, junk mail, trash or whatever else you want to call it. It’s annoying, it’s constant and I wanted it to stop. Immediately.

Block Spam and Carry onI used to be much more free and easy with bandying about my contact details. Filling in forms and competitions; marketing traps essentially; adding my email address to my website, client newsletters and social media accounts.  Not anymore. I am much more canny and here’s how you can be too.

First things first, keep your email address private. As soon as you add it to your supermarket’s loyalty card online form, theatre ticket booking or internet competition you are sending your details into the public domain. If you have to, make sure you opt out of any 3rd party offers, mailing lists or databases. Thanks to data protection legislation – you are protected but they aren’t going to make it easy for you to opt out – so beware!

If you have used your email address for registration at a conference, marketing or consumer deals then chances are the company who take down your contact details will sell them onto to e-commerce agents. These are valuable commodities for lead generation businesses. However these will equate to the average consumer as just annoyances and unwanted spam emails. So find out what the deal is first before signing away your privacy.

Sharing isn’t always good! Posting your details on social media sites is advised against. Spammers will harvest your data and pass them onto to other spammers.

Be smart! By signing up for that ‘free’ ipad on a random website, the likelihood is that you are being lured into an email and spam honey trap. Relinquish you details and you will feel the result.

So while you can make simple changes to how you communicate, there is a simple straightforward way of negotiating the spam highway and that’s through Giacom’s hosted exchange.

By signing up to the email hosting programme you will be protected against spam and viruses. You will not only have the peace of mind that your online life is secure you will also have email access anywhere at anytime, complete customer support, multi-device syncing and full data backups. And more to the point, it’s all great value for money and that, comrades, is a different kind of online victory.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 11th, 2013 at 10:35 am and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Every Cloud…


Every cloud has a silver lining right? That’s what I’ve been taught from a young age and I believe it to be true.

Yep, it may not always be sunshine and warm weather and let’s be honest, us Brits know a bit about facing inclement weather (especially at the moment – it’s snowing in April as I write people! Snow!) but for every negative turn there is a positive waiting to be found and celebrated.

Times columnist Caitlin Moran wrote about the effects of the terrible British weather on the marvelous state of UK culture and music at the weekend. Could we produce such stunning musical and literary output with constant sunshine in our lives?

Would Morrissey and Marr have collaborated and given us The Smiths? Unlikely, they’d be off playing beach volleyball on the shores of the Manchester Ship Canal instead. Would David Bowie have bothered breaking convention and opted for a bracing ramble in the English countryside in some glorious sunshine? Probably and who would have blamed him? So for these small but not insignificant reasons alone, I am grateful for our weather and it is indeed testament to the silver lining theory.

So similarly, cloud computing is continually trumpeted as being pretty damn good, a silver lining all on its own and I for one am in complete agreement. I am a cloud convertee and proud of it. So it was with some surprise that I read a recent article on the BBC website debating a downside to the Cloud.  The downside discussed was in relation to cloud computing being at threat from potential security breaches and the hacking of customer data by other fellow cloud stakeholders.

This theory stems from the idea that if your data is housed in a shared environment with numerous different companies sharing a server, the potential for one of these companies to hack into the shared space or cloud is (in theory) high, as all processing chips are hypothetically traceable. And recent attempts at breaking into a network by a systems lab proved to be, again only in theory, possible.

The reality though, is different. A test, potential hack in a remote lab does not make an actual hack. And it is because of continual security investigations and experiments like these, undertaken by cloud computing companies, that allow platforms to maintain a secure and risk free cloud base for businesses to rely on and invest in.

It is in fact well documented that by migrating to the Cloud, using hosted exchange email programmes and centralising access, you are in fact building a much safer and more secure environment for your network with additional safety nets and continual backups to boot. And if that’s not a silver lining, I don’t know what is.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 4th, 2013 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Singin’ in the Cloud


Musical CloudsI think many people just a little bit younger than myself may have missed out on buying their first music single as a seven-inch record, which is a sad tale.

I took the utmost pleasure in the purchase of Elton John’s I’m Still Standing, which frankly, is a ruddy classic. I hold my head up high on that one, although maybe not so much for some of my latter album picks (Milli Vanilli anyone?) but hey, you can’t win them all.

So as a child of the 80s, I, as everyone else did too, excitedly moved from vinyl onto tapes and willingly thrust myself into the future, and started buying CDs (shamefully, Simply Red’s Stars being one of my first CD buys, oh Mick, what was I thinking…?). But anyway, I digress….

The excitement of CDs (no need to rewind!) was more than enough for me, and so it took me a good old while to get on board with the digital revolution (via an ill-advised dalliance with mini-disc but let’s not dwell) and I bought my first mp3 player in 2007. Dear reader, I can safely say that it changed my life.

I know I am not the only person who fell totally and utterly in love with carrying their entire record collection around with them at all times and I don’t think I could ever go back to the old ways but it astonishes me still that progress hasn’t stopped there. The Cloud continues to open up even more musical avenues. We can now access anything online at anytime in anyplace on our smart phones or wifi enabled mp3 players.

Now I know I am potentially preaching to the converted here but sometimes it’s easy to forget how far and quickly we have all come on this cloud based trip. From buying ONE SONG almost thirty years ago, to now having access to (pretty much) every song in the whole world at our fingertips, thanks to software-as-a-service programmes like Spotify or Deezer. It would truly blow the mind of my six-year old self.

And it’s not just the music that we cloud dwellers benefit from on a personal note; there’s the photos, films, e-books, networks and files that are now safely tucked up and easily accessible to all of us. And let us not forget our professional lives…

The Cloud on a professional level really is game-changing too and enabling businesses all around the UK (and the world) to step up and deliver results. Much like the tech journey we’ve witnessed in our personal lives, using software-as-a-service such as a hosted exchange email platform has provided a whole new level of efficiency and security within our business worlds.

Just like our vinyl players, our corporate PCs are no longer required in order to continue working – now we can travel to work with ‘that’ song in our ears and our business data safely in our pockets. With Exchange hosting, you can even work and collaborate there and then, whether you’re stuck commuting, at home or even out visiting a client – music to your ears?

So while this journey is never ending, progress constantly inspiring and quick moving, let’s not forget that the benefits that technology is delivering now are all around us waiting to be tapped into, music turned up to maximum volume and most importantly of all, shared and enjoyed.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2013 at 12:55 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

What’s Driving Corporate Cloud Computing?


You may think that the big corporate cloud computing experts in the sky are the ones driving forward the Cloud revolution that has been happening before our very eyes for the last few years.

Corporate CloudHowever, I’ve got news for you kids; it ain’t the big businesses that have the influence and the sway for the ongoing and huge growth developing all around us; but rather it’s the home cloud adopter helping the big companies come on board with all things cloud.

Surprising some might say, given the world we live in constantly reminds us that corporations we see everywhere are the motivating and controlling forces behind global markets and technology trend adopting. However in this case, it’s not just the big-hitters who have the influence and power to create and grow new movements.

As any marketing expert will tell you, word of mouth is one of the most, if not the most, powerful tool when it comes to getting people on board with your ideas and products. And so, too, in the case of the Cloud, word of mouth and home cloud adopters tapping into the Cloud with their personal home networks and set-ups are the ones who are passing on their positive experience and knowledge to their workplaces – encouraging the use of business grade Cloud services such as Hosted Exchange.

Using dropbox to share photos with your in-laws? Well why not transfer the experience and technology to the latest project you are managing in your job? Need a tablet for a work trip or an important meeting coming up but don’t have one at work? Well then bring your own device (or BYOD, a current techie buzzword that I think we can all relate to) to the table, meeting or business trip.

And so too, with the growth of BYOD it is now paramount that companies of all shapes and sizes have the technology to allow their staff to enable this trend. They in turn become more efficient, tap into the network, allowing users to work from home and set-up email programmes such as Exchange hosting and multi-device syncing.

For once it’s not the fat cats shaping the way that we work but rather it’s the people at the coal face (as it were) carving out a new way of working, highlighting ways to solve work problems more efficiently, more quickly and with more added bonus freedom to roam with it.

These developments can only be positive steps forward and will create more work, generate more creativity and last but not least empower us all to take our work-life that one step further. Here’s to us, power to the people!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 21st, 2013 at 12:31 pm and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

Cloudbusting – Part Two

Clouds
Now as much as I love Kate Bush (too much) I am not about to write a blog post regarding one of her best loved songs but rather I am here, fair Giacom blog readers, to continue my look into the most common myths associated with Cloud computing and yep, that’s right, you’ve guessed it, bust those myths out the water or rather more appropriately, out the sky.

Last week we looked at how it was commonly thought that the Cloud wasn’t secure * FALSE KLAXON ALARM SOUNDS *, was incorrectly thought to be expensive * KERCHING * and most ridiculously and equally wrong, that the Cloud was bad for the environment * FAMILY FORTUNES: OUR SURVEY SAYS NO *.

So what other big fat lies are out there waiting for us to dispel and correct?

One common misconception about the Cloud is that it is unreliable. Large cloud based servers are more at risk to breakdown due to the mass of data passing through their tender wires. This is just not true.

By rehousing and restructuring, growing and expanding data networks and putting them at the heart of a cloud providers’ infrastructure that’s operated by experts in their field, reliability just isn’t a problem. By relying on your in-house server and dodgy connection you are much more likely to experience problems and be at the whim and whimsy of your telecoms company that has a million other clients to deal with.

So what would you choose? Large, purpose built cloud-computing centres, manned by god-like uber-cloud-geeks or keeping it in house and having the weight of your network rests on your shoulders? I know which one I would and do choose.

Another good one is that it’s hard to integrate existing systems into the Cloud.  Simply by migrating your network to the Cloud and email to hosted Exchange you will be given a service that fits your business and migrates your systems and networks in a way that best suits you. And by doing so, you will be able to scale your business up at the flick of a switch – no more having to rework your hardware from your office but rather an easy solution is there, ready and waiting.

And finally, one last myth for you to muse over: the Cloud is not suitable for large, long established companies, but rather aimed at start-ups, SMEs and those young kids controlling the financial markets from their university bedrooms. I’m afraid it’s just not true.  More and more large companies are housing their networks and Exchange email in the Cloud. So, despite their risk-averse reputations and staid protocols, big businesses are taking to the Cloud too.

It’s not the future, it’s happening now and that kind of notion applies to us all and not just those whom are just starting out.

 

Image by theaucitron

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 14th, 2013 at 11:51 am and is filed under Katie Kennedy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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