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Learn about the cloud and how it can be advantageous for nonprofit organizations, including access to information anytime anywhere, file syncing and sharing, data backup, and reduction in hardware and maintenance costs.
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The “Cloud” and other IT resources that can be beneficial to nonprofits
What exactly is “the cloud?” • Simply stated, the “cloud” is just a large amount of physical servers and storage arrays that are situated in an extremely secure data center and accessed over the Intenet. • The servers provide the compute power or the “brains” to make programs work and the storage arrays house all of the data
Why is the cloud becoming so popular? Access to information anytime anywhere
Some “cloud” vendor examples Google Apps for Nonprofits Office 365, OneDrive, Skype and Azure storage, servers and much more File syncing and sharing, and data backup File syncing and sharing and data backup Cloud based phone system
PC(USA) and Cloud Computing • Amazon AWS – OGA apps including PC-BIZ • Dropbox – File sync and sharing • Linode – Web hosting for the PCUSA website • Office 365 – email, Office products, conferencing and file syncing
Why use the cloud? PC(USA) Data Center Before PC(USA) Data Center After • Reduce servers and room space • Reduce the complexity and staff support • Reduce utility bills • Eliminate hardware and maintenance • costs • Many servers and large space • Adequate staff to support • Electricity and cooling • $$$ for hardware and maintenance
Reduce hardware and maintenance costs Retiring and eliminating physical servers… …saves money.
Subscription based • $2.00 per user per month for premium plan for organizations needing up to 300 license • $4.50 per user per month for E3 everything plan for unlimited users • Full versions of Office, Office mobile apps, OneDrive cloud storage, Skype for Business, online Office apps and SharePoint • E1 version is free and offers everything except the full version of Office and mobile apps • For more info on Office 365 for Nonprofits, visit http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/office365-for-nonprofits/ 6 racks of equipment
for Nonprofits • Verified 501c organizations can apply • Includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides –Google’s version of Office • Google Drive cloud file storage • User Gmail for your organization and set it up to use your domain name • Free…no kidding! • Many individual churches have already signed up • For more information visit https://www.google.com/nonprofits/
Both offer file synching,sharing and collaboration • File versioning • Central administration (with some plans) • Ease of use • Your files are available everywhere (you have WiFi) • Low Cost • Multiple plan types with associated monthly costs
Comprehensive and powerful offerings • Build your own cloud-based datacenter • Multiple data centers for failover • Servers, storage, databases, workstations • Security and Identity Management • E-Mail • Virtual Workstations • Networking and load balancing • Difficult to learn and manage for non-tech folks • Offer great incentives to learn their products
A non profit that helps other nonprofits • Need to register and create an account as an affiliate of PC(USA) • Offers software, hardware and training at great discounts • Has a large list of donor partners including Microsoft, Adobe, Dell, Cisco, etc. • Offers some cloud-based services