Why iGOvirtual?An iGOvirtual™ white paper on Cloud Computing and business IT outsourcing services

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Sponsored by Oriso Solutions inc.

An iGOvirtual™ white paper on

Cloud Computing and business IT outsourcing services

Why iGOvirtual?

Section 1

› What is cloud computing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

› Why should you use cloud computing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

› A brief history of computers and networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

› You are already using cloud computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Section 2

› Why should you use the iGOvirtual IT hosting service

based on Cloud Computing for your SMB? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

› IT Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

› Cost savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

› IT Power (Enterprise grade IT service) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

› IT Simplicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

› Energy and the Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

› Adaptability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

› The Future of Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

› Notes about this White Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

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Table of Contents

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is something that is used everyday

by millions of people . Except most don’t know they are

using it . It saves us time, it allows us to access informa-

tion from almost anywhere, and it simplifies our lives

greatly, yet it is still a mysterious and esoteric concept

to many people .

When you access your hotmail account, your gmail

account, Web-based CRMs like salesforce, google docs,

and all the other applications that allow you to do stuff

on the web without downloading software, that’s what

cloud computing really is; a way to compute, without the need for software on your computer. All you need is access to the Web .

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Cloud computing saves us time, it allows us to access information from almost anywhere, and it simplifies our lives greatly.

Why should you use Cloud Computing?

Because, in a parallel manner, everything else you use in your daily life is configured in that way; everything except for your computer,

your business’s IT infrastructure, and Ikea furniture .

Think of it this way . Let’s say you want to buy a car . Do you first go out and collect all

the individual components, bring them to your garage, and then hire a person to

put it together in the hopes that everything somehow works out? No . That would

be silly and ineffective . Plus, who knows how skilled the person you hired to put the

car together really is? Unless you yourself are a skilled mechanic, you won’t know

until you’re driving on the highway and your car begins to fall apart, or not, but it’s

quite the risk to take whichever way you consider the problem .

When you buy a microwave oven, do you need to understand physics in order to

use it? No . You push a few buttons and your food gets warm, which is the way it

should be . Technology is here to make our lives better, easier, and more productive,

not the other way around .

Why settle for anything less when it comes to your business’s IT infrastructure?

You are already using Cloud Computing

As mentioned previously, cloud computing is not

something mysterious or an unproven technology .

Most people already use some form of cloud computing or another. We pulled some

statistics from the The Pew Research Center . The Pew

Research Center is a nonpartisan “fact tank” that pro-

vides information on the issues, attitudes and trends

shaping America and the world . It does not take posi-

tions on policy issues .

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A brief history of computers and networks

In the beginning there were relays. Rows upon rows of switches that when

triggered by electric current, switched position; the birth of modern binary comput-

ing . Computers in the ‘50s-‘60s were based on these mechanical switches and took up

entire floors . Think back to old movies when you see those wall cabinets with those

spinning tapes and blinking lights, think to the original Star Trek episodes and the noise

the computer made when it was ‘working’ . Those were relays switching positions .

Then came transistors and the world shifted gears . Speed increased dramati-

cally and computers shrunk in size . Eventually they became small enough to fit in

a typical home . Bill Gates is famous for saying way back when: “640k ought to be

enough for anyone” . It wasn’t .

Eventually these computers evolved. And so did networks . We went from

the old computer-to-computer networks, to computer-to-server-to-computer net-

works, BBS’s came into being, LAN’s, Wi-Fi networks, and now we’re at Cloud Computing.

We’re at a point in time when bandwidth is so great, remote servers so big with

processors so fast that we no longer need to have anything on our computers except for an Internet browser. In our day and age, through

those Internet connected browsers, we can do anything, from setting our DVR with

our mobile phones, to keeping in touch with loves ones all over the world, to remotely

monitoring a patient in a hospital . That is the power of Cloud Computing .

Below is a rundown of the share of Internet users

who have done a select set of online activities that

involve storing data online or accessing applications

in cyberspace .

› 56% of Internet users use webmail services such

as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail .

› 34% store personal photos online .

› 29% use online applications such as Google

Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express .

› 7% store personal videos online .

› 5% pay to store computer files online .

› 5% back up their hard drives on an online site .

Overall, 69% of online users have done at least one of

these six activities, with 40% of Internet users having

done at least two of them .

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56% of Internet users use webmail services such as Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo! Mail.

Convenience and flexibility are the watchwords for those who engage in at least

one of the cloud computing activities listed above:

› 51% of Internet users who have done a cloud computing activity say a major

reason they do this is that it is easy and convenient .

› 41% of cloud users say a major reason they use these applications is that they like

being able to access their data from whatever computer they are using .

› 39% cite the ease of sharing information as a major reason they use applications

in cyberspace or store data there .

The “cloud computing” data comes from a survey of 2,251 adults between April 8,

2008 and May 11, 2008 . Some 1,553 respondents in the survey were Internet users

and the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for results based on

Internet users .

In summary, ≈69% of online users are using some form of cloud computing!

If that seems overly simplistic, think of the accoun-

tants who thought the same thing when computers

first made their appearance in the early ‘60s . Think of

the business people who thought the same about cell

phones when they came out . Think of the people who

thought the same thing when the Internet evolved

into a useable work tool . And now, every business, no

matter how small has a website, every employee works

on a computer and uses e-mail, and everybody has a

mobile phone . Cloud Computing is next . The earlier a company adopts this new way of com-puting, the better it will be for its perfor-mance, peace of mind, and bottom line.

Now, let’s get into the real world benefits of the iGOvir-

tual IT hosting solution . But before we start, let’s define

what iGOvirtual is exactly .

iGOvirtual is a turnkey IT outsourcing service based on Cloud Computing. It’s a

virtual IT department that takes care of all your IT

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Why should you use the iGOvirtual IT hosting service based on Cloud Computing for your SMB?

needs . From 10 to 1000 users, iGOvirtual can optimize the way you handle your

information technology by providing your business with options that were previously

only available to huge corporations . To make things simple, if you use the iGOvirtual

IT outsourcing service, you will never have to worry about anything IT related ever again, and you’ll be benefit from Enterprise grade IT services .

To quote Hugo Boutet, president and CEO of Oriso Solutions:

“Cloud Computing defines a new age in computing, a time when

people are not limited by one theory, one OS, one platform,

limited software, or limited business models. To sum it up, Cloud

Computing is a underlying change in business technology that

will engender a fundamental shift in business thinking, a change

that will allow anyone with an Internet connection to access

a worldwide cloud of potential that before was only available

to the types of companies that could afford building a global

computing infrastructure.”

The iGOvirtual™ core IT infrastructure outsourcing service gives small and medium

sized businesses advantages that change the way the entire game is played.

Because it’s the right thing to do for your business.

As a business manager, in a very short time, it will become quite clear what your

money is buying once you have outsourced your IT infrastructure with iGOvirtual .

Remember, IT security is simply one feature of our turnkey solution .

So there you have it, businesses can focus their time, money and wor-ries on their core competency – whatever it is you do best, because your

outsourced IT infrastructure is in the hands of those whose core competencies include

information security management .

Cost savings

According to a new report from Info-Tech Research Group, businesses can achieve,

on average, cost savings of 27% by outsourcing their core IT infrastructure .

For research purposes Info-Tech defined outsourcing as any engagement where a

third party has ownership over a deliverable . Info-Tech’s Impact Research Report “IT

Outsourcing with Purpose” also documents that cost savings are correlated to the

percentage of IT budget being outsourced .

Cost savings alone are not the primary motivator for outsourcing IT . “In a third of the

organizations studied, increased IT efficiency was the key motivator for outsourcing,” said Jeniffer Colasanti, Senior Research Consultant at the Info-Tech

Research Group . “In these instances benefit drivers, like access to more expertise,

repurposing of employees and the reduction of management overhead and internal

training, bring greater benefit to the business than cost savings alone .”

Colasanti notes that in addition to reducing the cost of existing operations by 13 to

27 per cent and improving efficiency, IT outsourcing can help small and fast-growing companies level the IT playing field with large enterprises,

by providing similar advantages .

Outsourcing IT with iGOvirtual also extends the life of your PCs since you

are using the processing power of our servers and not what’s inside your computers .

Imagine not having to buy servers every 3 years to stay competitive, or PC’s every 2

years, imagine not having to install software, update software, or configure software ever again!

Imagine the time and money you could save on that alone .

The costs associated with information technology are high even though they no

longer have to be . It’s just something we’ve gotten used to over the years . Time

is often wasted on tasks that are less than profitable, to say the least . How many

hundreds of hours per year are wasted in your corporation managing your network

and infrastructure, re-installing and configuring software, updating and patching

software, upgrading and registering software, validating codes, re-booting servers

and PC’s, and all the other IT tasks that we’ve grown accustomed to?

That’s what iGOvirtual™ is all about . We want you to be more profitable. We want you to have an infrastructure and a network free of worry and maintenance.

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IT Security

Security is perhaps the number one concern of businesses when contemplating outsourcing

their IT .

Information security these days is becoming quite a

scary proposition for most businesses . It is moving so

rapidly, it is often associated with bad publicity, it is

only understood by a small percentage of the popula-

tion, and if not implemented correctly can put even

the largest corporation out of business . The media

constantly covers breaking news stories about sites being hacked, credit card numbers being stolen and virus infections causing millions of

dollars of damages .

Most businesses know that IT security isn’t their core

competency . But neither is repairing their corporate

vehicles, nor cleaning office windows, so what happens

in circumstances like these? We look for someone to

outsource these services to . We find a mechanic or

a window washer who is competent in these areas .

Whoever said: “Find the one thing you are good at and

outsource the rest” was a very wise person .

Outsourcing means that businesses no longer have the hassles or the costs of trying to hire security professionals, nor will businesses

need to worry about whether their IT staff or anyone

else who may have been handling their information

security management knows exactly what they are

doing . iGOvirtual has qualified customer-focused staff

to align security management with your business goals

and always puts your best interests at heart .

You need not worry about training costs either. iGOvirtual is qualified to provide you with

ongoing support and is always up to date on the lat-

est security issues . We manage your security on a 24 x 7 basis and provide your business with

an operations centre and incident response team to

ensure that incidents are handled with care, managed

from start to end with quality control exercised every

step of the way . We have extensive knowledge of the security market, both locally and globally

to keep you informed and make recommendations that

help your business grow while enhancing security .

IT Power (Enterprise grade IT service)

When we say that iGOvirtual gives you power, we

mean it! It’s difficult to truly conceive what Enter-

prise grade IT really implies without actually wit-

nessing it first hand but imagine turning on your computer and having access to anything you want with a simple click of

the mouse .

One of the major advantages of iGOvirtual is an on-

demand software feature . With iGOvirtual, you don’t need to purchase software, you don’t need to register software, and you don’t need to update

software, you simply select it from the on-demand menu

and use it whenever you need to, iGOvirtual takes care

of the rest .

The list of available and on-demand soft-ware is extensive and ranges from the typical

Microsoft Office Suite all the way to hyper-specialized

software like Maestro (for the construction industry)

and Genius (for the manufacturing industry) .

If your business has any special needs, give our experts

a call and they’ll design a custom virtual software

package for you, no matter in what sector of activity

you operate .

Virtual Software: exactly like the real thing, minus

the hassle .

IT Simplicity

Updates, virus-scans, registrations, extra-RAM, what OS

in what mutation, user access and permissions, clus-

ters, kernels, bit-rates, firewalls, viruses that permutate,

spam to help you procreate, .dll library files, a faster bus

and wires for miles, bad compatibility, no accessibil-

ity, gigahertz, access ports, root-levels, on-line sports,

patches, versions, protocols, clock speed, need control,

octocore is beautiful: I can’t take it anymore…

There are enough complicated IT terms out there

to rewrite lyrics to the entire ‘We didn’t start the fire’

song by Billy Joel . When you consider everything that is

related to IT and the impact it has on your business and

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the complexity of mastering it… Well, it’s a large mountain to climb . Thankfully you no

longer have to climb mountains . That complicated time has truly passed . From now

on, all you need for state-of-the-art business IT is iGOvirtual . Everything works, from everywhere, flawlessly, with but a simple click of the mouse. It is truly the way business IT was meant to be from the beginning: simple .

Energy and the Environment

Using iGOvirtual is the greenest way to manage your business’s IT. When you think about it you realize something profound, the larger your business

the more energy your IT infrastructure consumes . When you outsource your IT infra-

structure, you not only reduce your costs, but you reduce your energy usage by up

to 90% in some cases .

Also, since your PCs will last longer and perform better, you reduce your IT impact on the environment and lower your carbon footprint, not

to mention that iGOvirtual can dispose of your aging computers and parts in the

most environmentally responsible ways available .

Adaptability

No longer are businesses forced to adapt to the limitations of their business’s IT

infrastructure . By outsourcing your IT infrastructure with iGOvirtual, your IT will

always adapt to your business needs .

It is one of the pivotal advantages of the iGOvirtual hosting solution . Let’s say that

IT is a suit worn by your business . When your business is young, the suit is small . As

you grow, or as your business needs change, you need to buy a new suit for your

corporate body to compensate for its growth . That is how tradition IT works . In this

example, comparatively, iGOvirtual would be a second skin that constantly adapts to the changes of your corporate body. If you grow, iGOvirtual

grows along with you, if you streamline, iGOvirtual streamlines with you, if you need

to expand temporarily, iGOvirtual adapts .

Another aspect of iGOvirtual’s adaptability is its capacity to be accessed from anywhere in the world. The information resources of your business are the

tools of your trade, that’s why you use them, they are also your protection; your IT

infrastructure protects your information . When you travel, when you visit a client,

when you’re at a café, or at the airport, you are only as safe as the networks you con-

nect with . You can login remotely to your business servers, but again, the risk is high,

and those types of remote connections are far from efficient or stable .

iGOvirtual permits you to work remotely from anywhere in the world, with full

access to your information, with total security, as long as you can connect to the

Internet . With iGOvirtual, no matter where you are, you will never have to worry about anything IT, or utter the words “The files are on my server at work”

ever again .

protected by the best security available in cyberspace,

accessible from anywhere in the world, and for a frac-

tion of the cost of ‘not’ outsourcing .

True, a restructuring of tasks in the IT department will

be in order, but this is something to rejoice in and not

fear . By giving IT professionals more value-adding

tasks instead of occupying their days with software

upgrades, router issues, computer crashes, anti-virus

updates, and hundreds of other reactive and time

consuming tasks, the IT professionals can fully concentrate on proactively using their skills to the benefit of their businesses. With

iGOvirtual, businesses instantly gain a fully-functional

state-of-the-art IT department, reduce their IT related

expenses, and can fully concentrate on their core-com-

petencies knowing that everything related to their IT

infrastructure is in the hands of professionals whose

core-competency is IT infrastructure management;

a true win-win scenario for all involved.

That is where we now stand . All businesses, large,

medium, or small, now have access to world-class Enter-

prise grade IT of unprecedented usefulness, power and

simplicity . iGOvirtual is proud to usher in this new era

of computing and to provide this homegrown service

to businesses in Quebec and in Canada .

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The current trends clearly indicate a global convergence of technologies. Mobile phones can access PCs, PCs can access databases around

the planet, servers in all corners of the world can share workloads thanks to virtual-

ization, all media is now connected by the Internet, real-time streams of information

are constantly pouring in and being used and analyzed, the technological conver-

gence is already here . Cloud computing is simply the term used to categorize this

phenomenon .

Across the globe, businesses are rapidly being made aware of the advantages of cloud computing, thanks to conferences given by leaders

in the industry and rapidly emerging white papers such as the one you are reading

now, but resistance to IT outsourcing is still relatively high, mostly

from lack of clear information on the subject, but also due to the irrational fear that

if a business decides to use cloud computing or IT hosting, their IT staff will lose their

jobs . That perception is false, arrived at erroneously mostly because of a simple fear

of change . It is well known that for fear of losing their employment, some IT network

managers refrain from recommending the outsourcing of their core IT infrastructure

as the most beneficial move for their businesses .

Another detrimental and erroneous aspect is the perception that some type of

re-training will be needed or that it will ‘hard’ or ‘different’ to use cloud computing .

The irony is that outsourcing your IT with iGOvirtual is completely transparent. That is one of the advantages of iGOvirtual cloud computing . The

truth is that very little or no training at all is needed to take advantage of all the benefits that iGOvirtual brings to the table. Everything you

normally use, you still use, the same way as before, however, at ultimate efficiency

levels, with no network problems, no computer crashes, no fear of missing a back-up,

The current trends clearly indicate a global convergence of technologies.

The Future of Computing

About The Pew Research Center.

The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan “fact tank” that provides information on

the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world . It does not take

positions on policy issues .

Security Information data

www .windowsecurity .com

About Info-Tech Research Group

With a paid membership of over 20,000 worldwide, Info-Tech Research Group

(www .infotech .com) is the global leader in providing tactical, practical Information

Technology research and analysis . It is one of North America’s fastest growing full-

service IT analyst firms .

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Notes about this White Paper

3580 Isabelle suite 200 Brossard, Quebec, Canada J4Y 2R3

Phone: (450) 444-1544 Toll-free: 1-877-366-7476 Fax: (450) 444-1558 Email: info@igovirtual .com

Contact us now

Contact us for further details Toll Free: 1-877-36-ORISO

www .igovirtual .com

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