In the first 4 parts of this series, we defined the Cloud and discussed some of its many advantages. Which brings up an interesting question—“Are there any potential pitfalls of migrating your business to a Cloud Computing environment?” We’ll explore that issue in this post.

One issue that has to be addressed when planning a Cloud migration is the connection to the Internet. Most businesses only have a single Internet circuit. If the Internet circuit goes out, most employees can still do a limited amount of work on their personal computers (PCs). As long as the Internet outage doesn’t last too long, it isn’t a debilitating problem (some would argue that due to the proliferation of cloud-based applications like email and Google Docs, this statement is debatable).

But in a Cloud Computing environment based on desktop virtualization, an Internet outage means that employees do not have access to their desktops until Internet service is restored. Obviously, that is not a good situation. So how can this risk be mitigated?

I suppose if we are going to talk about Cloud Computing, then we need to define the term “Cloud”. The following animation provides a simple and somewhat amusing explanation of the Cloud.

However, after watching this video, you might get the impression that the Cloud is simply a good place to store your data. While this is true, it is only one component of the Cloud.

The next video gives a broader and slightly more historical perspective of the Cloud. If you are a little “geeky”, this will definitely appeal to you.

Okay, if you are still awake, let’s finish with something a little more “peppy”.

Aha! Now we’re getting somewhere. Besides the fact that any presentation involving Legos is super cool, the message conveyed in this short video is that the Cloud has evolved to mean multiple things which are especially important to businesses! The most important components of the cloud include:

What is cloud computing? If you perform an Internet search, you will get a multitude of results, many from large companies like Microsoft, IBM and Amazon. Those companies offer tutorials and whitepapers that generally associate cloud computing with concepts like data storage, application hosting and server virtualization. With respect to applications and servers, the suggestion is that the cloud can be used for all of a user’s “compute” needs. These descriptions are entirely appropriate and, for large companies with specific needs, the cloud offers all of these capabilities and more. But what about small and medium sized businesses (SMBs)—companies with 10 to 500 employees? What does cloud computing offer those organizations? Over the next several months, I will create a series of posts in which I will explore this question and, hopefully, clarify the true power of cloud computing for SMBs. I will cover topics like data backup, fault tolerance, high-availability and disaster recovery—all of which become ubiquitously available when a cloud computing solution incorporating Desktop Virtualization is deployed.