CLOUD COMPUTING
Norrcom’s triple “E” cloud solutions - Effective, Efficient and Economical
What is all this ‘cloud’ talk and why should we be bothered?
Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Why do we need these services and what they will do for us is explained in this leaflet. If there were a single sentence to capture the benefit, it would be ‘reduced cost, reliable performance and automatically maintained’. Based on this why wouldn't you use it? The chances are you already use ‘cloud computing’ you just don't know it.
EFFECTIVE stages of cloud computing
Cloud computing comes in four distinct steps.
STEP1
Is the Internet connection capable of sustaining the systems that will be used.
STEP2
Migrate all the free services to the cloud (see ECONOMICAL). You will be surprised how you can cloud compute for FREE.
STEP3
Consider hosting server offsite,; this financial decision should NOT be launched into lightly without weighing up the cost benefits.
STEP 4
Thin client computing - Most NZ schools are not ready for this and the costs are still quite prohibitive.
EFFICIENT advice on making the move
Schools need good sound advice. Do not be sold a complete managed solution if it is not needed, discussions should take place to ascertain which step you are at and 
which step you can move to. Schools need to maintain the same if not better service for the same if not better costs. Otherwise what advantage is there in making the change?
which step you can move to. Schools need to maintain the same if not better service for the same if not better costs. Otherwise what advantage is there in making the change?Norrcom can help in the decision making process.
ECONOMICAL stages to do NOW
The following is a list of applications that are available now and in most cases have NO additional costs.
GOOGLE
Google mail and Google Apps have a ZERO usage cost, although there is a small setup fee. Once setup the mail service on your existing server can be eliminated thus reducing the onsite cost.
ACCOUNTING
Xero is used in many NZ schools, and costs LESS than most onsite accounting packages. This also reduces the need for an onsite server component.
SMS
Many SMS systems are CLOUD or web based, again reducing the need for onsite data storage.
LMS
The two main LMS vendors are hosted solutions.
BACKUP
Norrcom offer an educational priced solution that costs less than the tape system you now use.
MyPortfolio
Web based and FREE.
Moving these mature cloud based applications will typically reduce the cost of a replacement server by 50%. This makes the move well worth while.
NORRCOM SOLUTION
The Norrcom triple “E” solution helps you stage the move to cloud computing, not breaking the bank while preparing you for the future.
