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V O L . X X V N O. I V F E B R UA R Y 1 8 , 2 0 1 9 20 WO R K P L A C E T E C H N O L O G Y F O C U S Desjardins agrees. "I have a client from years ago. When we first started talking about the cloud, we were sitting in his office, glass win- dows everywhere," Desjardins recalls. "e question was about security: 'Okay, if I put my stuff in the cloud, is it going to be secure?' I said, 'What's going to be easier to break into, this room, where you're surrounded by glass windows and your server is just sitting, or a tier 4 to 5 data center?' e risk is smaller to be in the cloud, because they have so much more security and money and teams of people monitoring this 24 hours a day. Even if a disaster happens, the ability to recover data is much higher." Scott MacDonald, founder and CEO of Maine Technology Group in Winslow, says the cloud is more reliable than on-site infrastructure. "If an on-site server crashes, you could potentially lose everything, or you pay a lot of money to be able to access it," MacDonald says. "If you have an on-premise server and 14 locations, every location has to have the right kind of software. at all goes away in the cloud. It's streamlined, and most times it's more cost-effective." The downside to cloud computing But there are downsides. ose major players? "ey're much bigger targets," says Desjardins. "If you're a plumbing company, you're probably not going to get hacked. But if you're Microsoft, people are coming after you every day." Even if they simply have an outage, "You're dead in the water," he adds. "If Microsoft, for example, is having an outage, you're not getting email. You have to ride it out." As a result, says McGrath, "Finding good carriers who have strong service records and good cov- erage is critical. One of the things we see is many companies now have much more active business continu- ity plans. If something happens – say there's a fire in the physical office building – you're removing the risk that goes along with having all of your IT equipment there." Migration decision ere are key times when a busi- ness might want to assess whether to migrate, says McGrath, whose company offers a formal cloud assess- ment of business drivers, applications, data, security and network needs. One scenario is when a business is con- sidering a sizeable investment in its existing network to get it up to date. Another is if a business uses systems that offer better functionality in a cloud offering than in a traditional on-premises version. ese days, he says, migration is pretty easy. "e transition for end users is far less impactful than many people think," he says. "We focus a great deal on making cloud transitions seamless to the users." Ultimately, he says, the decision to migrate is about end-user productiv- ity, security and the ability to scale the business, and should be weighed along with traditional on-premises networks and hybrid solutions. "Your business needs should be driving the solutions," he says. Lag time While Maine might lag in picking up on new technologies, things are chang- ing, providers say. Says MacDonald, "Most of the time it goes along genera- tion lines: 'I want to be able to see the lights blinking in the black box.' But once anyone knows the inner workings of the cloud and the security behind it, most times the scariness is over. It's like online banking. Ten years ago, a lot of people said, 'No way, not going to do it.' Today, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone not using online banking." Desjardins says it's important just to have the conversation. "One of my customers is a CPA audit firm," he says. "ey had a server in their Buxton office. eir auditors are on the road all the time, but the only way they could access their data was in the office. We put together file-sharing solutions with an off-site host. eir Buxton server became irrelevant. at eliminated a lot of overhead on the technology side and redirected that time and investment into solutions that could be accessed any- where in the world. It's transformative for their organization. It just required a rethinking of the paradigm." Laurie Schreiber, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached at lschreiber @ mainebiz.biz High Speed Internet Reliable, High Quality Phone Service Hosted PBX Phone Systems Cloud Fax Services Wide Area Networking Cloud and Managed Services otelco.com • 877-643-6246 » C O N T I N U E D F RO M P R E V I O U S PA G E Passamaquoddys plan data center T he Passamaquoddy tribe at Indian Township is planning to build a state-of-the-art data center designed to provide the benefits of cloud computing, create well-paying jobs and diversify the regional econ- omy. The plan calls for using "green" hydrogen-powered fuel cells in order to eliminate carbon emissions. Darrin Coffin, the tribe's finance director, said the tribe is awaiting word on its application to the U.S. Department of Treasury's New Market Tax Credit program, to launch the venture. The project leverages the reservation's location on Maine's 3-Ring Binder, designed to bring high-speed broad- band connectivity to rural parts of the state. DOWNLOAD SPEEDS — 10Mbps+ — 1.5 – 10Mbps — No service — No households or businesses — 3 Ring Binder fiber network INDIAN TOWNSHIP If you're a plumbing company, you're probably not going to get hacked. But if you're Microsoft, people are coming after you every day. — Evan Desjardins Roundtable Technology

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