Cloud Summit 2013 ROI, Can You Afford NOT to Go?

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Cloud Summit 2013 in San Diego is hosted by Cloud9 Real Time

Your business and clients are busy, and your competition is growing …. Cloud Summit 2013 won’t just help you keep up, but will give you the tools and training to be more efficient, productive and secure!

In fact, 97% of attendees surveyed said they would recommend attending Cloud Summit 2013 to their colleagues and friends, and 94% said their business improvements outweighed the cost of attending 3-fold.

…..See also: Here Comes Cloud Summit 2013!

Cloud Summit 2013 is THE exclusive 4th annual cloud computing conference for professional practices and small businesses.  Join us as we explore all things Cloud and teach you how to implement and maximize your cloud computing solutions!

Green Cloud Computing, What Does IT Mean?

green cloud computing is the future of IT‘Green cloud computing’ is a trending nomenclature reflective of huge potential environmental benefit(s) that IT services rendered via the Web can offer society. The expression conflates environ-friendly ‘green’ with ‘cloud.’

Also, ‘green’ is associated with revenue, profit, money, ‘greenbacks’ and all, so ‘green’ cloud computing is also used to describe the vast economies of scale, rapid market adoption velocity, and amazing business  efficiencies and potential revenue growth of cloud computing initiatives.

Government Standards & Green Cloud Computing

cloud9 is green cloud computing

Carbon footprints and climate change top the planet’s list of worries, largely due to our reliance on ‘dirty’ energy from fossil fuels.  Often we blame the industrial sectors as the culprits of pollution and atmospheric stress, but it’s actually the IT industries that should rightly be shouldering the blame.

……..>  download the Cloud9 green sheet

Governments increasingly place demanding limits on factory and industrial energy consumption and emissions while such power consumption and pollution from IT and computer processing and data centers is often largely ignored.

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Here Comes Cloud Summit 2013!

San Diego Cloud Summit 2013

4th Annual Cloud Summit in beautiful San Diego Bay  -  THE 2013 cloud computing event not to be missed!

Go to: Cloud Summit 2013 Event Info & Registration Site

Offering attendees premium Cloud Solutions educational courses with all-star educators and one on one sessions for individual practice needs, this August 14-16 cloud computing retreat to Paradise Point, is held at a private 44-acre island with picturesque backdrops, single level bungalows and all the amenities of a 4 Diamond resort & spa.  

Go to: Cloud Summit 2013 Event Info & Registration Site

Cloud Computing Conference at Paradise PointCloud Summit 2013 is the Exclusive Cloud Computing Technology Conference offering 18 CPE credits, an All-Star lineup of educators and one on one user trainings for the top rated Cloud solutions. Held at a private 44-acre island in beautiful San Diego, California this 3 Day Event is not to be missed with content focused tracks for Accounting Professionals, CPA’s and Business Owners alike. Continue reading

Four Keys to Telecommuting Happiness

Telecommuting HappinessUndoubtedly the Cloud has made it easier than ever for people to achieve a work/life balance through telecommuting happiness.

Without the morning drive and battles with rush hour traffic, many workers find themselves happier working out of their home.  This feeling is under-scored by a survey conducted last year by Staples that found Telecommuters Are Happier and Healthier

Still, the inherent nature of having geographic barriers can be a struggle over time. Tech-trends writer Kimberly Crossland offers some sage advice on how you can help lead your staff to telecommuting happiness.

Kimberly Crossland Savvy Tech Writer on Telecommuting Happiness

See also: Cloud Telecommuting Enables Collaboration

Guest post by Kimberly Crossland -

Despite all of the hubbub about our emerging ‘work anytime/anywhere’ paradigm, home offices can often feel lonesome, and sometimes work falls to the wayside because of the lack of satisfaction telecommuters receive by working in an office or with a group of people. When this happens, work quality and productivity may suffer.

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Tax Application Hosting on the Cloud

Tax Application hosting on Cloud

Tax application hosting – No longer limited to QuickBooks and Microsoft software cloud hosting!

Cloud9 private virtual server solutions provide clients with a private cloud to host all their desktop office, organizational, and financial applications including tax application hosting, time & billing programs, CRM systems etc. Tax application hosting allows users to access the programs anytime, anywhere via internet access and work remote with their tax applications being hosted at a SSAE 16 Type II Data Center.

See related: Cloud9 Real Time has been honored with the 2012 & 2013 Reader’s Choice Award by CPA Practice Advisor for Favorite Accounting ASP/Hosted/Cloud Solution Provider

tax application hosting by cloud9 voted #1 by more accountants and tax preparersWhy would you want to host your tax software? A multitude of reasons! The most common reason for hosting tax software is that the firm does not want to buy and maintain a local server. Second, the firm has remote employees or the need to work outside the physical office on their programs. Finally, the firm desires to have a more secure infrastructure then the traditional client-server infrastructure.

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Webinar & Accounting Hosting Demo April 23rd

QuickBooks in the Cloud Webinar

QuickBooks and all your applications via hosted cloud computing is a game changer for your business – savings with fewer headaches!

Register for WebinarTues 4-23-2013 – 10AM-11AM PST

Have you heard about QuickBooks 2013 Accounting Hosting and the CLOUD, but not sure how it works or how to execute? 

QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Premier Accountants Edition, POS and Enterprise are now all available in the United States to host AND Lease! Save time and money while gaining the benefits of working in the Cloud. Find out on this free webinar, how you can Lease all versions of QuickBooks desktop editions, have anytime, anywhere access while turning all the IT responsibilities like backups, updates, server maintenance etc to Cloud9. 

Application Hosting CloudThis free webinar will be led by Robert J. Chandler, President/CEO of Cloud9 Real Time, a leading advocate of modern accounting methods that include universal internet service with remote access to client files via cloud accounting hosting, outsourcing of bookkeeping work, automated accounting systems and techniques, professional certification for all bookkeeping practitioners, and cloud computing advancements for an aging industry.

Register for WebinarTues 4-23-2013 – 10AM-11AM PST

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Lease QuickBooks Enterprise 13.0 – Cloud Hosted License Rental Program

Lease QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions - Cloud Hosted License Rental ProgramLease QuickBooks Enterprise 13.0 – A Cloud9 Real Time  Hosted Enterprise License Rental Offering

You can now lease QuickBooks Enterprise 13.0, the most flexible version of America’s #1 best selling small business accounting software. It works seamlessly with other small business products and services to help you and your shared or virtual server solution based clients run more efficiently.

Lease QuickBooks Enterprise 13.0, hosted on Cloud9’s award-winning private accounting office shared and dedicated server solutions, for a winning combination, but it gets better: Cloud9 Real Time has elected to offer an Enterprise Solutions leased license rental option, a first ever: Lease Quickbooks Enterprise for just $79.99 per user per month.

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Webinar: Security & Ethics of Legal Practice Cloud Computing

Webinar Registration:  

Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Time:  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM PDT

“The transition from local desktop and local server-based operations to cloud computing and SaaS (software as a service) is possibly the greatest shift in information technology since the advent of the commercialized Internet.”

Get the white paper: Cloud9 Legal Cloud Report

   Also: Security & Ethics of Law Office Cloud Services

Law Practice Cloud Security & Ethics

While the advantages afforded by legal practice cloud computing are many, several issues arise relating to the relative security of the newer cloud-based systems versus traditional, on-premises setups. In a law firm context, the use of Saas (software-as-a-service) cloud computing raises ethics issues around storing confidential client data.

In this webinar, you will learn the advantages of migrating traditional desktops and server-based software to the cloud for law practices of all sizes. We will discuss best practices, risk analysis and implementation.   Find out how you can move to legal practice cloud computing to save time & money with all your applications, data and users in one centralized location.

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Cloud Computing IaaS to Surpass $72B by 2016

IaaS to grow says Gartner

>>>>>>>>>>>>Click to expand

Cloud computing IaaS market to grow from less than a third of the SaaS market in 2011 to nearly equal by 2016*

*source: OT Blog & Forbes

Pursuant to a recent Gartner study on cloud services projected for 2012-2016, cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) spending will likely surpass $72 billion, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42 percent.  Gartner predicts the IaaS market to grow from less than one-third of the SaaS market in 2011 to almost equal the size by 2016.

See also - Server Still Under the Mattress?

and - Cloud9 Dedicated Virtual Server Hosting

 ”Of all the cloud technological aspects, infrastructure as a service (Cloud Computing IaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) are the most mature and established from a competitive landscape perspective, ” said Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner.

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Best Cloud Computing Quotes, Wake Up Everyone!

Joe McKendrick, a contributor to Forbes’ Tech Blog, found a handful of inspiring cloud computing quotes from tech’s most compelling visionaries.

Steve Jobs Cloud ComputingWhile much has been written about the Cloud in recent times — both positive and negative, as well as relatively neutral, occasionally during cloud tech’s meteoric rise, there have been some real cloud computing quotes gems, adroitly describing what’s taking place and the profundity of it all.  Steve Jobs made his iconic quip back in ’97, which became the stuff of legend and keenly predicted the modern day ‘cloud rush.’  –

1) “I don’t need a hard disk in my computer if I can get to the server faster… carrying around these non-connected computers is byzantine by comparison.” – Steve Jobs 1997

Joe wienman on Cloud Computing2) “Ultimately, the cloud is the latest example of Schumpeterian creative destruction: creating wealth for those who exploit it; and leading to the demise of those that don’t.” – Joe Weinman, Senior VP at Telx and author of Cloudonomics: The Business Value of Cloud Computing

Cloud quote from Vivek Kundra3) “Cloud computing is often far more secure than traditional computing, because companies like Google and Amazon can attract and retain cyber-security personnel of higher quality than many US agencies.” – Vivek Kundra, former federal CIO of the United States

Cloud Computing expert Nick Carr4) “Discontinued products and services are nothing new, of course, but what is new with the coming of the cloud is the discontinuation of services to which people have entrusted a lot of personal or otherwise important data – and in many cases devoted a lot of time to creating and organizing that data. As businesses ratchet up their use of cloud services, they’re going to struggle with similar problems, sometimes on a much greater scale. I don’t see any way around this – it’s the price we pay for the convenience of centralized apps and databases – but it’s worth keeping in mind that in the cloud we’re all guinea pigs, and that means we’re all dispensable. Caveat cloudster.” – Nick Carr, author of Does IT Matter?, The Big Switch and The Shallows 

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Cloud Accounting: Pros w/ Few Cons

CPA Practice Advisor Cloud Accounting Hosting AwardMany small company owners & managers know the benefits of maintaining the business books; they also know just how time intensive it can be!

Proper bookkeeping is solely for the benefit of operating a company; it is a must for business owners to keep up to date with their P&L and revenue targets.*

Kacee Johnson Cloud9 Real TimeFrom CPA Practice Advisor by Kacee Johnson

Get the White Paper – A Specialized Cloud for Accountants

Presently there are MANY accounting software packages available off the shelf, with some being industry standards, and some being more niche specialized.  Amidst the decision-matrix there is a growing move towards selecting cloud-based accounting and virtual server software hosting, which functions and is accessed via the web. This basically means that the bookkeeping and accounting processes happen online, rather than localized to an individual PC.

Cloud Accounting Concerns

One essential concern company owners have with cloud accounting is data security. This in itself should not be an overriding concern; cloud access is only granted by permission from authorized account holders. The best cloud hosting companies invest significant capital in security and backup.  Essentially, data may actually be safer than if it was stored locally. For example, data could be lost through theft of hardware or failure when stored on an office computer or server. Such risk is minimised when data is stored in the cloud and protected by high levels of security and backup procedure.

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Cloud Telecommuting: Technology Enables Collaboration

Jennifer Katrulya Telecommuting

…….Jennifer Katrulya

Do you work from home? Are you productive? Do you work remotely or just telecommute?

Guest post by Jennifer Katrulya CPA, president of BMRG

For quite a long time, this question has dogged companies and organizations across the globe who understand why it’s important to let employees work from home (telecommuting), yet can’t help feeling that those same employees might be more efficient if they were physically working in an office.

On February 22, AllThingsD broke the news that Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer’s will require, as of June 10, all 14,500 employees to be on-site rather than telecommute. In the memo, Jackie Reses, the head of HR, said, “We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.” According to various news reports, the issue isn’t whether Ms. Mayer believes employees are not performing to their potential; she would just rather have them together so they could collaborate and share ideas.

First, I think it’s important to make some distinctions here; “telecommuting” and “working remotely” are two different things. When you telecommute, you work from home. When you work remotely, you can work anywhere, any time, cloud telecommuting, something we support at BMRG (and Cloud9 Real Time) and something I know Ms. Mayer will also advocate when her employees have to be away from the office for travel or meetings.

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The Sleeter Group Transitions to Cloud… Cloud9 that is!

Doug Sleeter Chunkified

Many or most small companies and business pros are chronically habituated to software applications developed to run on Windows, and the thought of pulling the plug on all of that software simultaneously to go with an all-inclusive cloud-based accounting system is frightening.

This is when the concept of “hosting” your existing windows software applications in the cloud becomes not only a doable plan, but rather compelling (to say the least). “By using a hosting solution, we can move to the cloud-based accounting without having to retrain all the staff and switch to new workflows all at the same time,” says accounting industry über thought leader Doug Sleeter, president of The Sleeter Group, who advises firms throughout North America.

See also: ‘Chunkified’ Cloud Accounting and the Future of Your Practice

Sleeter Virtual server accountantingSleeter Group converted its own desktop software to cloud-based hosting, including Cloud9 Real Time dedicated virtual cloud servers.  “We’re doing this not just cause it’s cool, but because we believe it will reduce costs, improve perform-ance, and enhance our security,” says Sleeter.

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Moving QuickBooks POS Hosting to the Cloud

quickbooks pos cloud computing“QuickBooks POS hosting by Cloud9 Real Time is a terrific game changer for many small businesses, …

…reducing IT costs and shifting focus from IT to billable hours and providing the luxury, security and convenience of anytime/anywhere access while Cloud9 manages the servers, data center, backups, and any/all software updates and glitches!“ (Enthusiastic POS pro overheard at CloudSummit ’12)

QuickBooks POS on CloudNewly unveiled, Intuit QuickBooks Point of Sale 2013 POS software organizes and tracks sales, customer information, and inventory counts. The new QuickBooks POS version 2013 includes improvements in the navigation and user interface, as well as a valuable new mobile sync feature. Point of Sale 2013 comes in Basic, Pro, and Multi-Store for retailers to choose the software version that fits best. Combined with Cloud9′s virtual server (cloud computing) solution, the newest version of Intuit’s POS software offers an unparalleled advantage to account for and synchronize multiple business locations from a single ‘bank-level’ secure access point. 

Mobile QuickBooks POS on CloudWith Point of Sale 2013, business operators can also easily accept credit card transactions via smart-devices, iPads,  iPhones, Droids, and Blackberries, so its natively mobile now, allowing shopkeepers and retailers to transact commerce anywhere, from the middle of an eatery to a vendor booth at a conference or a delivery at a job site. All smart device originated transaction and inventory updates instantly synced to QuickBooks POS 2013 hosted on the cloud.

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