IT’s easy to get lost in all the talk about cloud computing. Everybody seems to have a cloud, connects to the cloud, is cloud-enabled, or at the least, is cloud-ready.

There’s a lot of jargon, but it’s not all fluff and buzz. Behind that jargon are some very real business and technology benefits.

One Peterborough-based company that is able to offer advice on cloud computing, or software-as-a-service (SAAS) is Sentinel IT.

Sentinel has two products under its EasylifeIT brand called Professional Email and Customer Manager, which have been designed for the business professional and small business owner who needs to stay in contact with clients and business associates and share customer sales and service information with colleagues, but who doesn’t want to buy a server. All this can be done “in the cloud”.

Sentinel’s Lindsey Hall said, “Most people who have worked in larger companies expect the ability to share customer information, contacts, calendars and their Inbox with others, as well as being able to access that same information from home or mobile, but previously these features have only been available to those with servers. Now that has all changed. In the current climate, buying and running your own server is an unnecessary headache for an aspiring small company.”

A new guide to cloud computing, produced in association with Sun Microsystems, will help you sort out what matters from what doesn’t — and will arm you with a framework for determining whether and how cloud computing makes sense for your organization.

In 25 pages, this free guide:
Defines cloud computing and its benefits

• Explains the different types of clouds (public, private, and hybrid)
• Describes the architectural service layers (e.g., Software as a Service)
• Details the underlying virtualization technologies
• Suggests next steps and actions to get started

Click here to get the guide — and get your head into the cloud.