Best cloud service

Looking for the best cloud service. Not google!
Has anyone got any favourites /good experiences?
 

Thank you Michelle.

Define 'best' - what do you need it to do?

Agre with both previous posts in part Steve. We would start with the "what are you trying to achieve?" question and then would investigate the best solution once we have that answer. Michelle is correct in that Office 365 is a fantastic example of the technology but there are other options.

Happy to provide more detailed info if you need it.

Alan

Hiya, Echo'ing what the guys have asked... what do you want the cloud to do for you?

We are Noblue SaaS and specialise in helping companies acheieve a "Server-less Enterprise" if we can be of any help then just drop me a bell :)

We can also help you with a cloud service, Please contact me on 01254 304040 to discus what you need and how we can help.

Ash.

I would also say that it's worth considering how many users you would want to have access to the system. Some are great for 1/2 users but don't scale well.

I'll join the tender process here too!  Quest offer out-of-the-box cloud solutions as well as bespoke services, tailored to your needs.  MS 365 is a very cheap way of achieving a cloud service, but it can come with Data Protection issues, depending on your industry and your clients' data that you may be storing, so keep an eye out for that.

As others have said, you'll need to consider exactly what it is you want/need the system to do, and then a solution can be designed around that.

You won't find pushy sales with us, so if you want a pressure-free chat about what the "cloud" can do for you, please do get in touch.

Have a good weekend all!

Cheers

Ryan

Will echo what the others are saying, it all depends what you want.

Google Apps for business is a good product.  However in our tests Office 365 was a better solution as it required little to no user training.

Office 365 will give you:

• Exchange online - Access your email from anywhere on almost any device. Share contacts, calendars and email boxes with your colleagues.
• Sharepoint Online - Create a staff intranet, host your files and documents online, create an external website for your business, collaborate and share files.
• Lync Client - Instant messaging, presence indicator, voice chat, video chat, conferencing, collaborate with your colleagues online.
• ForeFront Anti Spam and Anti Virus - Enterprise class email protection
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee - Data and emails are always there when you need them.
• Office Web Apps - View and edit your documents from any machine without MS Office installed.
• Outlook Web Access - Access your email, calendars and contacts online without MS Outlook

These are just a few of features and dont even mention the benfits, like the fact it is all backed up for 30 days, it allows you to work from anywhere so can be your disaster recovery and business continuity solutions.

We have loads of clients using it at the moment and have just set it up for a large company who are now saving £25,000 over 5 years compared to a standard office based solution.

If you want a chat, by all means give us a call: 0845 621 6660 no sales pressure and free advice given :)

Thank you to everyone who has responded.
I originally made the enquiry on behalf of a contact to whom I supply  a number of images on a monthly basis, he wanted to store these in the cloud.
He has gone off and made his own enquiries - so I shall leave hoim to get on with it.
As for Google tho': I hear that, in their T&C's, they claim to have rights to anything you may upload to their servers. Somehow I don't fancy that!

Ah so it is only for image backup?

In that case Google Apps or Office 365 are waaaaay overkill.

Something like DropBox or iBackup would be fine.  £6/month gets him 100Gb online backup for his files with ibackup: http://bit.ly/obvoBa

Just to muddy the waters a little, We are testing the eyeOS suite of cloud based applications and Horde. Both are very interesting, show great promise and are Open Source.

Gary

I haven't looked at their T and Cs, I suspect that there may be some truth in it though. Everything you do on Facebook belongs to Facebook so I dare say that similar T and Cs are in place.

Gary

I haven't looked at their T and Cs, I suspect that there may be some truth in it though. Everything you do on Facebook belongs to Facebook so I dare say that similar T and Cs are in place.

So it would seem - this is what I read.
Slightly surpised that more people/users are not picking up on this!
Such is the hegemony of google over us all!