Managed IT Services Blog

According to TechGenix, it is estimated that 78 percent of all small businesses will adopt cloud technologies by the year 2020. This estimation makes sense when you consider the cost savings that small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) find after they move to the cloud. As the popularity of cloud computing with SMBs grows, so does the interest in Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a cloud provider. This is expected as AWS remains the dominant force in the market, even when compared to heavyweights like Microsoft and Google.

There was a time when both business leaders and IT leaders avoided the cloud, citing security as one of their top reasons to keep data, applications, and infrastructure out of the cloud and on-premises. Although this line of thinking was relatively recent, it is a myth that has since been dispelled. Cloud providers such as Amazon bring highly talented, security-focused people to their teams to help businesses better secure things on their side. 

When it comes to cloud infrastructure services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) still reigns at the top of the list for cloud infrastructure services with more than 30 percent of the market share. By comparison, the second-most popular cloud service, Microsoft Azure, comes in at approximately 15 percent.

There are many reasons why an organization may opt for a hybrid cloud environment. The company may feel safer keeping certain applications, infrastructure, or data on premises; there may be a technical need, such as reliance on legacy software, that requires a hybrid environment; or they might require on-premises data storage because of the various existing regulations.

Every company I have worked for has decided to outsource their datacenter to a managed hosting provider, in some manner or another. Some only outsourced their websites, others went all in and had them manage their entire infrastructure. 

Most managed hosting providers will regulate everything from the operating system down the stack to the hardware, the cooling and the electrical for you. Many will use virtualization technology of some kind to help optimize usage and resources for you. They even help companies "right size" their virtualization environment when it goes into their hosting environment. 

There have been a myriad of myths surrounding cloud computing ever since its inception. Unfortunately, too many decision-makers believe these myths when evaluating a service like Amazon Web Services (AWS) for their backup solution, which can either lead them down a path where they live under a false sense of security or cause them to avoid using AWS due to misconceptions. Below, we will take a look at a few of the myths that surround AWS backup solutions and address them to give you the right information.

In 2016, VMWare and Amazon announced a partnership that would make VMWare Cloud available on Amazon Web Services (AWS). This partnership brought the capability for organizations to run their software both on their on-premises data centers and on the AWS cloud to create a true hybrid cloud or make it easier to move to the public cloud.

In 2017, Vade Secure reported that ransomware-infected emails rose 6,000 percent. Recent natural disasters have brought business operations down across the globe. Then there are outages that are the result of human error: Someone misconfigures something or enters the wrong command and systems go down.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers small businesses a number of benefits. There are plenty of Amazon Machine Instances that are preconfigured so a small IT team can quickly spin up a virtual appliance, server, or other computing resource. Like any other cloud service, AWS offers scalability to allow business IT resources to grow on demand and it helps control costs by offering a number of different pricing plans. There are, of course, other benefits that entice small businesses to turn to AWS for a number of their computing needs. However, like any other resource, there are security considerations that you need to make.

The following list outlines five of the most important best practices any small business needs to consider when using AWS in their environment.