Cloud Services in Houston

The cloud is the hardware you do not own running your processes and workloads. Moving to “the cloud” can take the form of Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), Software-as-a-service (SaaS), or a combination of the two.

The Infrastructure-as-a-Service approach takes your current infrastructure needs and moves them to a cloud provider. An example of this approach would be to migrate your servers to Microsoft Azure or a private cloud host such as Uprite. Companies will continue with this approach for several years with their public websites.

The Software-as-a-Service approach takes your critical applications and migrates them to a cloud provider. An example of this approach is Office 365 Email services. Software-as-a-Service is a mature model for applications such as email, financial packages, and customer-relationship management software.

The cloud is used to reduce business risk and to shift the remaining risk to other entities. Hosting critical infrastructure, software, and services in a cloud reduces site and hardware dependency. It is a valuable tool in business continuity scenarios and enables remote workforces to operate with minimal disruption.

The cloud is controlled by whoever hosts your Infrastructure-as-a-Service or Software-as-a-Service products. These vendors operate under special rules and parameters to maintain the health and integrity of the system platform. Vendors that are large and well-known, such as Microsoft and Amazon, maintain cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

Software-as-a-Service platforms are typically operated and controlled by the software vendor themselves, like Intuit in the case of Quickbooks Online.

The primary advantages of cloud services are:

• Removing interdependence on company locations and their utilities
• Standardization of workflows and business processes
• Converting IT expenses from capital expenditures to operational expenditures

An IT infrastructure requires several utilities to remain operational, such as power, internet, and cooling. Cloud providers scale these systems to provide redundancy and lower costs to allow smaller businesses to operate information technology in a budget-friendly manner. This allows companies of any size to not be hindered by downtime and IT limitations.

Utilizing a standard platform for IT services allows businesses to standardize workflows and processes for their users, reducing complexity and enabling consistent results.

IT equipment is expensive, as are IT systems. Business Continuity: the ability to operate a business under any circumstance, and Disaster Recovery: recovering from disasters such as hurricanes, fires, and pandemics, are expensive.

Leveraging cloud services removes significant capital expenses required to provide redundancy and continuity goals for your business.

These services allow predictable budgets and are much better at controlling costs than maintaining hardware on-premises.

The three most common reasons to utilize the cloud are to:

• Simplify IT operations
• Provide better Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
• Provide stable, predictable IT budgets that provide the flexibility small businesses need to scale their operations

Any system can be hacked, including cloud services. Due to public availability, clouds are targeted more frequently than small business offices. Still, clouds are much more secure due to committed security teams and processes. Cloud environments are more strict on what is allowed in the environment due to the shared-tenancy model.

Cloud security and on-premise security are equally important. Cloud services have more methods for public accessibility, therefore, safeguarding your cloud environment via multi-factor authentication (MFA), virtual private networking (VPN), and strict passwords are just as important for cloud services as for on-premise services.

Security is a multi-faceted approach and company culture. Common methods of securing any environment, including cloud services, are multi-factor authentication (MFA), virtual private networking (VPN), and strict passwords. An underutilized component of security is user training.

A secure and knowledgeable user is your best defense for protecting your company’s data and reputation.

Cloud security is not very different from on-premise security. However, a secure cloud environment greatly benefits from additional logging and access controls due to its publicly accessible nature.

Additional access controls can take the form of ensuring that a user is logging in to systems in a realistic manner: for example, if a user logs in from Houston, Texas, at 7:55 am, that same user account is not logging in from New York City at 8:02 am.

Additional logging components provide additional user monitoring by capturing activity of this kind, from user location to failed login attempts (an indicator that a user’s password has been compromised), and atypical user access such as a sales user attempting to access the payroll component of a financial package.

• Redundant: Uprite’s server infrastructure is highly redundant with a resilient storage backend. Our redundant power systems leverage diesel generators, and our redundant cooling systems ensure server racks never overheat. By choosing Uprite as your cloud provider, you also gain the power to choose between different internet providers and physical connections.
• Responsive Support: With 24/7 proactive support, you can guarantee a response to any issue within fifteen minutes. We also offer local Texas on-site support.
• Secure: Data stored in our cloud is safe from natural disasters, something physical servers cannot offer. Our team knows cybersecurity is essential, going above and beyond to protect you from malware and cyberattacks.
• No Surprises: Thanks to our dedicated accounting team, our invoices are consolidated to streamline your experience. Enjoy consistent pricing with zero software restrictions, zero bandwidth charges, and zero overages with Uprite as your trusted cloud partner.
• Flexible: In the cloud, your options are limitless. Our techs will perform a thorough technology assessment of your business to create your custom Cloud Migration Plan (CMP), a flexible plan designed to evolve with your business.

All servers are backed up every hour for 48 hours to ensure a quick and relevant restore point. We also provide nightly backups on a rolling 31-day basis which are customizable to meet your business needs.