100% up-time SLA + $100 credit when you get started with a Cloud Server

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Does your cloud provider offer a 100% up-time guarantee backed by an industry leading SLA?

Does your provider offer 24/7/365 live support with real engineers that can help with networking, hardware config, OS, database (DBA services), software, app dev issues, VOIP, etc?

Does your provider offer a 30 day money back guarantee so you can try the service with little to no risk?

Does your provider offer hybrid services that allow you to combine cloud servers, dedicated or colo equipment, custom hardware firewall / vpn solutions for PCI / HIPAA compliance, hosted services like Exchange?

These are just a few of the reasons why you should try our service.  Demand more from your provider.  Demand service without risk.   Email sales@cera.net for more info.

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Quickbooks as a Service (QaaS)

Posted on by CeraNet

Intuit is aggressively pushing people to use their online service vs individual desktop applications.  Their online service has many benefits including automatic backups, mobile access, and much more.  The only problem is that once you put your data in and start using the service — YOU CAN NEVER STOP.  You cannot download a data file to use with the desktop service, you have to give your accountant user access (additional costs), and much more.

Here is a screen shot from their actual ‘help’:

This is not ‘as a service’ — this is serious problem.

Email me at sales@cera.net to find out how we can use a cloud server & hardware firewall / vpn to give you a true Quickbooks as a Service experience that allows you secure access your data, when you want it, how you want it.

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Top 4 reasons you’re NOT getting the most from your IT budget

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  • Most corporate data centers run at 50% total capacity and individual server are 5 to 10% utilization**.  If you own the data center and servers, at least 50% of every dollar is wasted.
  • IT departments spend 80% of their time maintaining systems and only 20% of their time putting new systems into production or innovating**.   Additionally, at least ½ of maintenance goes to unused or underutilized systems.
  • Infrastructure (HVAC, UPS power systems, generators, networking, etc.) are extremely expensive to buy and maintain.  Consider a professional data center (Infrastructure as a Server – IaaS) that allow you to only pay for what you use.
  • It can take 3 to 4 weeks to release a new production application (buying servers, waiting for them to be delivered, setup & config, etc.).  Not only do you have the capital expense for the new equipment, but also considerable human resource costs for the people to do all of the work.  Consider a cloud service provider that has the resources available to setup a new server in minutes with options to only pay for what you use & add or change resource allocations on the fly.

** Stats and info from the Uptime Institute & CIO.com

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Top 5 Reasons Companies are Moving to the Cloud

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  • If you are not working for Dell, IBM, or work in a data center then you should not own a server.  Do you know how to repair a hard drive or recover from the ‘blue screen of death’?   Why not let people who know how to fix server problems, fix them?
  • Why spend $10,000 on a server that is worth half that in 9 months when you rent it?  We can provide the same power of a typical server for less than $150 per month.  It would take more than 5 years to pay off that same server – what do you think it would be worth then?   Operating cost vs capital expense.  Save your money.  Use it to build your business, not your stockpile of servers worth nothing in 5 years.
  • How long does it take to get a new software application online?  You have to figure out what kind of server and software you need, order it from Dell and wait for 10 business days for it to be delivered, 2-3 days for your techs to install and configure the server, and 1 or 2 days to for your programmers to work out the bugs and get the new software application online.  A total of 3 to 4 WEEKS.  Use a cloud server from a professional data center and you can literally be up and running with your choice of operation system and database server software in 15 minutes!
  • What does it take to ‘upgrade your server’ to accommodate a new business?   If you went viral tomorrow, would your server be able to handle the traffic?  If you are on a cloud server, you can simply log into the control panel from your favorite provider and simply add resources.   If you are working on your own server + are lucky enough to have it available in your data center, you would need to take the server off-line, install the memory or additional processing power, and turn it back – then hope it works as expected.   Think of the time saved, not to mention the labor costs.
  • Reliability.  A true cloud server environment is backed by a profession data cloud that should offer a 100% uptime guarantee 24/7/365 monitoring of all critical systems and security from multiple locations, plus technical support and service any time and every time you need it.
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CeraNet Cloud Servers vs Rackspace vs Amazon WS

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I’ve gone through different cloud service providers to try to come up with a good comparison model with pricing for our cloud services vs other market leaders.  Here is what I came up with:

Base Cloud Server – 1 proc, 2gb ram, 100gb of storage, 1000gb of transfer, Windows Server Web Edition 2008 R2, unmanaged service

  • CeraNet – $90 per month, including Windows Server SPLA license (200 for the server + 15 for the license).
    Current offer of 1/2 price server for the first three months
  • RackSpace – $238.40 per month, including Windows License (using the Rackspace.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)
  • Amazon EC2 On Demand – $123.84 per month (**using their ‘free’ trial server, $525 after that**) including Windows License (using the Amazonws.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)

Average Cloud Server – 2 procs, 4gb ram, 150gb of storage, 1000gb of transfer, Windows Server Web Edition 2008 R2, unmanaged service

  • CeraNet – $240 per month, including Windows Server SPLA license (225 for the server + 15 for the license).
    Current offer of 1/2 price server for the first three months
  • RackSpace – $296.80 per month, including Windows License (using the Rackspace.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)
  • Amazon EC2 On Demand – $613.35 per month, including Windows License on a one year min contract (using the Amazonws.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)

Database Application Cloud Server with SQL Server  – 4 procs, 4gb ram, 150gb of storage, 1000gb of transfer, Windows Server Web Edition 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012,  unmanaged service

  • CeraNet – $315 per month, including Windows Server + SQL Server SPLA licenses (275 for the server + 15 for the OS license + 25 for the SQL server license).
    Current offer of 1/2 price server for the first three months
  • RackSpace – $457.40 per month, including Windows + SQL Server licenses (using the Rackspace.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)
  • Amazon EC2 On Demand – $627.99 per month, including OS + SQL Server licenses on a one year min contract (using the Amazonws.com online price calculator on 7/31/2012)

The pricing seems to be VERY complex for both models.  While their ‘pay as you go’ scheme with advertised rates at .10 or less per hour, the formulas and requirements make it impossible to actually get these rates.

Your feedback is requested and appreciated.

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