Cloud Computing is among the recent technological innovations that has revolutionized the computing sector. However, many people still do not understand the benefits that this cloud technology can drive to their small businesses. Generally, cloud computing provides an avenue through which individuals can access powerful software applications from the web. They can then use them in internal networks physically located within their proximity. The most applauded applications include online data backup, hosted email systems, and software as a service (SaaS). People who use this technology also have their Internet Protocol (IP) hosted phone services (Hosted VoIP) among other benefits.

  [Image credit: scottchan]

Basic Preconditions before Establishing a Cloud Computing Environment

People have to conform to some basic preconditions before creating a cloud-computing environment. Organizations that plan to develop a cloud-computing platform should first analyze their Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. For instance, they should look at various IT facets such as their data center, networking systems, storage resources and the overall capacity of their IT applications. Generally, by aligning such infrastructure, they should be able to determine whether their platform conforms to the minimum requirements for efficient performance in a cloud-computing environment.

Secondly, protection is a major attribute of a good cloud computing architecture. Therefore, organizations that want to create decent environments should comprehend the individual requirements of all applications that they will use in a cloud-computing environment. As a result, they will be able to make informed decisions when choosing a cloud platform. The right cloud-computing platform should enhance the performance and reliability of their applications. This is only possible if the platform complements the application requirements.

Principally, individuals should make sure that their environments outsource their network servers, and other applications form third party centers. As a result, they will pass down the maintenance and uptime costs to hosting data centers while they enjoy seamless computing.

Considerations for Businesses that Want to create a cloud Computing Environment -

1. Security

Data security is a key attribute that people must keep in mind when creating cloud-computing environments. For instance, they should understand how segmentation of multi-tenant or shared environments occurs to avoid customer overlap. They should look at the safety of their hosts’ storage platform and other attributes such as networks.

2. Manageability

Organizations should understand their roles and the roles of their service providers. For instance, they may not get administrative assistance from some public vendors. Therefore, organizations should determine whether they are in a position to carry out these duties or if they have to outsource from other cloud vendors.

3. Performance

The level of performance of a cloud environment should be directly proportional to a company’s infrastructure demands. Therefore, people should determine whether they cloud environment that they are using or that which they intend to use will cater for these demands. They can ascertain this attribute by regular testing and troubleshooting.

4. Compliance

People should know where their cloud hosts will keep their data. They should also understand how, and who will interact with their data. Understanding these areas of compliance will enable them to audit their host’s regulations and standards and select those that they can tolerate.

People who consider these key attributes can create good environments and benefit from their cloud computing ventures. They will experience faster internet speed at lower costs. This will improve the productivity of the businesses and present them with higher profits.

Author Bio:

Biljana is a writer and a blogger exploring the Australian virtual private server solutions available and publishing useful tips and advice on how and why cloud solutions may be beneficial for businesses in Australia and worldwide.

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If you’re webmaster or blogger then you must be aware how crucial it is to take regular backups of your site as they act as a lifesaver in case something unfortunate happens with your site server or it gets hacked. There are several ways to backup a self-hosted WP blog, you can do it manually via phpMyAdmin or simply use one of those Database backup plugins out there to export the backup file to your computer or email.

However, above tricks are meant only to perform a backup of your WordPress site database which includes your posts, pages, comments, categories, tags, plugins data, and some other info. But the database doesn’t includes your blog images, plugins, themes, scripts and any other files uploaded to your FTP server. Certainly, it’s advisable to take a complete backup of your site to be on safe side in case some disaster occurs. We’re here to share an easy and efficient way that automates the task of backing up your Full WordPress blog (or just database) to one of the best and most popular cloud storage service ‘Dropbox’. Until now, I had been uploading images and other important stuff manually to Dropbox but not anymore. Here comes the easiest possible way!

WordPress Backup to Dropbox is a free plugin for WordPress that automatically uploads a backup of your entire website, including all files and its database, to Dropbox. With a minimalist and simple interface, it makes it easier for you to setup a recurring backup in a few clicks. It lets you initiate a backup process manually and also offers the functionality to schedule backup as desired so as to perform backups on regular basis. You can choose the date, time and frequency for the backup to dropbox. One can also choose what files and folders are to be included in the full backup. There’s a nifty option to select the files and directories that you wish to exclude from your backup.

In simple words, it can backup the root directory of your site (public_html) to a set location on your Dropbox account. You shouldn’t be concerned about the security as the plugin uses OAuth to keep your Dropbox account details safe. No credentials are stored for the plugin to gain access.

How to Backup WordPress Blog to Dropbox –

1. You must have a Dropbox account. It is Free and provides 2GB of free storage.

2. Open your WordPress dashboard, install the plugin ‘WordPress Backup to Dropbox’.

3. After activating the plugin, open its Settings from the Backup option in menu.

4. You now need to Authorize the plugin to connect it with your Dropbox account. Then grant access by clicking the ‘Allow’ button.

5. Now move back to WordPress Dash, go to plugin settings and specify the backup schedule. Tick mark any files or folders that you don’t want to be included.

The backup would be automatically performed at the specific time interval to Dropbox. Voila! All your site’s media and database will now be accessible from anywhere.

Plugin site – WordPress Backup to Dropbox

via  [TechBU]

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Android offers the functionality to quickly toggle settings for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, brightness, sound, sync, etc. directly from the notification bar or power control widget but not for the data connection. This makes it pretty uneasy for users who frequently access web on their device through 2G/3G/4G, as they’ve to tap multiple times just to turn on/off the data packet (from Settings > Wireless and network > Mobile networks > Data enabled.) That’s where ‘Data Enabler Widget’ comes to rescue!

Data Enabler Widget is a free and handy app for Android devices that does a simple but efficient job. It is a smart and elegant widget that adds the ability to enable/disable the mobile data with 1-click, without messing up the APNs. By adding this small widget to your homescreen, you can toggle the "Data enabled" setting quickly and easily. The bottom of widget icon turns blue/green when it’s on and turns grey when disabled. It’s a nifty widget and works perfectly, tried on Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.4.

After installing the app, you simply need to normally add its widget on home screen.

Download Data Enabler Widget [Google Play]

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Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has a smart feature integrated that allows you to take full backup of your device and then restore the backup when required using Android SDK tools. Wug’s Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit for Samsung Galaxy Nexus makes this task way easier and surprisingly you don’t need to root or unlock bootloader to perform a backup. Also, this toolkit doesn’t requires to have Android SDK installed when on Windows.

Note: This Does NOT backup all of your SD card data such as pictures, music, files, etc. So, it’s your recommended to manually copy the entire SD card contents to your computer. You can move them back to SD card later incase a factory reset is performed. The SMS messages and the call logs will be wiped as well. So take care!

Guide – Backup All Installed Apps and Apps Data on Galaxy Nexus

1. Download Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit and install it on your Windows system.

2. Important - Configure Drivers for your device using the toolkit. Refer to this detailed tutorial and make sure the drivers are setup properly before proceeding ahead.

3. Next, enabled USB Debugging on your device and connect it to computer via USB. Then open the toolkit (Run as Administrator).

4. Open the toolkit. Ensure your device is connected by selecting ‘adb-phone on’ and clicking the ‘List devices’ option. (Refer tutorial)

5. Click on the ‘Backup Apps + Data’ listed under Backup and Restore in the toolkit.

- Specify the location on your computer to save the backup file (.ab).

- A cmd windows will open up. Confirm if you see the adb device listed there.

- Then another command prompt window will open asking if you’d like to include system apps and apps data in your backup.

>> It’s recommended to choose No, which will result in backup of all user installed apps along with their data. This option is preferred as you can restore the backup after installing the latest firmware (when updated manually) or after flashing a custom ROM.

6. A new cmd window will now appear asking if you’re ready to initiate the backup?

- Hold your device in hand and make sure the screen is awake.

7. As you confirm, a Backup screen will appear on your phone.

- You’ll be prompted to enter a password on your device to protect the backup file. (Make sure to remember the set password as it is required to restore the backup file.)

- The backup process will start automatically, you can notice the activity on phone.

- Once the backup is complete it will be stored on your computer in the specified directory. Similarly, you can Restore it anytime using Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit. Upon restoration, all apps and their data such as password and settings would be restored.

~ We tried this procedure on Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.2 and it worked like a charm. The restore process went flawless and all the user apps were intact with data.

Hope you found this guide useful.

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Are you an Airtel Broadband customer looking to check your Internet usage? Then here’s a really simple way to quickly find the Airtel broadband data usage for your account. Smartbytes, a service recently introduced by Airtel allows broadband users to buy additional data packages to Retain High Speed Bandwidth after crossing FUP limit and acts as your internet usage manager as well.

To view Airtel Internet data usage, visit www.airtel.in/smartbyte-s/page.html from your Airtel broadband connection. The webpage will instantly show the internet usage details of your account for the current bill cycle without requiring any type of registration or login. The page lists your DSL ID (phone no.), allocated high speed data transfer limit as per your plan, remaining high-speed data transfer quota (non-FUP), and days left in your current billing cycle (calculated month wise). Implement some simple maths to know the data consumed by deducting GBs left from the high speed limit.

Using the same webpage, you can also opt for airtel smartbytes deals by purchasing additional high speed quota, in case your high speed data limit is over and you don’t desire to continue browsing on low-bandwidth (i.e. 256kbps speed). This is certainly a nice move by Airtel to let users check their broadband usage in just a single click!

Note: You can even check data usage of other Airtel users if you’ve access to their network. This is something that Airtel needs to fix by adding some sort of protection.

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Technology is a boon that has made our lives simple in more than one aspect. When it comes to the Internet and other related technologies, there is a sea change in the manner things were done a decade or so before. Today with technologies like Cloud computing, we have a promising future to look up to.

What is Cloud Computing?

It is the latest technology that is used to access services which are accessible on the Internet cloud. With this technology at you disposal, you no longer need to install any hardware or software as all services and storage space are provided over the internet. Moreover, it is quite easy to get started with this service.

When people start up with a business, they usually look for some cost cutting methods. The constant endeavor is to employ the most advanced tools for your job. With cloud computing you have an all in one and perfect solution. It not only helps in reducing the cost but is also very simple to set up and run. Discussed below are some of the Cloud based tools which you can utilize for your small business. These tools will help your business to become more fruitful and operate at a reduced cost.

1. Invoicing: Invoicing is an important and necessary part of every business. You can use Invoicera to send and create professional invoices and maintain your business accounts. Now, with the help of cloud based invoicing service, you can create and send invoices to your clients easily. This ensures that you get paid on time. There are some cloud based apps that let you track your time and expenses effectively. Thus it helps to keep you up to date. Although there are a number of Invoicing applications available in the market like Zoho Invoice, Blinksale, CurdBee, FreshBooks, but Invoicera is certainly the best among all.

2. Online Conferencing: Today, online conferencing has become a normal routine for almost every business. With online conferencing, you can meet your customers and employees. Go to Meeting, WebEx, WebDialogs.com (for video conferencing), Press8 Telecom (for audio conferencing), and Nefsis are some of the cloud based conferencing tools available across the internet.

3. File and Calendar Sharing: With a feature like calendar sharing, one can share and access digitally stored information like calendars, multimedia files, documents and computer programs. Some well known cloud based and calendar sharing applications are ZohoDocs.com, Google Docs, Microsoft SharePoint, Centraldesktop.com, etc. In fact, there are many hosting companies that offer MS SharePoint in a cloud. These companies charge on a per client basis.

4. Data Storage: Now you can keep a backup of your important digital files by making use of data storage service providers like ZumoDrive or Mozy.com.

5. VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) Hosted PBX: With VoIP PBX system, you can fundamentally access your PBX system over the cloud. This cloud based tool provides a simple sign up and you can get started with it within few minutes.

6. Blogging Software: A company blog is a simple way to keep your customers up to date and to publicize your enterprise. You can easily sign up with an online blogging company. Some popular blog software are WordPress, Squarespace, etc.

7. Custom Relationship Management (CRM): This is one of the most employed tactics in order to manage the company’s communication with its clients and sales scenario in an effective manner. This system is a must for every small business. Some of the well-known cloud computing CRM tools are Zoho CRM, Salesforce.com and SugarCRM.com.

Author Bio: This post is contributed by Kevin. Kevin works as an E-Marketing Executive for PixelCrayons, which offers best ecommerce website development & designing services, online shopping cart development, Magento development & designing services and other ecommerce software services.

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Here is an alternative way to synchronize and backup data of your Android phone to Windows computer, for users who don’t want to use the native PC Suite application. Moreover, you can backup over Wi-Fi without connecting phone to PC with a data cable.

This can be done using the latest MyPhoneExplorer v1.8.0 which now supports various Android phones. This program was initially designed for Sony Ericsson mobiles but the recent version also supports Android-based phones (connected via Wi-Fi or USB cable).

MyPhoneExplorer is a free, small, and easy-to-use program that lets you synchronise and backup your mobile phone data which includes your Phone Contacts (Phonebook), Messages (SMS), Calls history, Calendar. It also lets you browse and manage all the files and folders located on the Phone memory and memory card.

How to Backup Android phone Contacts & Messages to Computer –

1. Download and Install MyPhoneExplorer on your Windows PC.

2. Download and Install ‘MyPhoneExplorer Client’ app on your Android phone.

3. You can connect phone to PC over Wi-Fi or using a USB cable. Run the ‘MyPhoneExplorer Client’ app on your phone and make sure the phone is connected via Wi-Fi or USB to your computer.

4. Now Run MyPhoneExplorer on your PC. Go to File > Settings > Connection. Choose the same settings as shown below and click OK.

5. Click on File > Connect. Your phone should now be connected to PC and phone data will get synchronized automatically.

6. To Create backup, open the ‘Extras’ menu and click on ‘Create Backup’ option. Chose a location on computer to save the phone backup file. You can Restore it anytime.

7. Exit the ‘MyPhoneExplorer Client’ app on your phone after the task gets completed.

This process looks quite lengthy but is useful too! Hope you liked it.

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Twitter is one of the most popular social networking and microblogging service, and my most favorite too. If you’ve an account on twitter, then it is advisable to backup your account, just in case twitter loses your important account data or your twitter account gets hacked.

Tweetstream is a free online service which allows users to easily backup their entire twitter account in a few clicks. Free plan lets you add up to 3 accounts, provides automatic weekly synching and 500 MB of storage. It preserves all your twitter info and lets you browse all data using its own interface namely: tweets, following, followers, favorites, mentions, and Direct messages. You can download the backup to computer, FTP or Amazon S3. It also shows ‘Report’ which reveals some amazing metrics.

What’s Included in your Twitter Backup file:

1. All your tweets (timeline)
2. Everyone you follow (following)
3. Everyone who follows you (followers)
4. All your favorite tweets
5. Every tweet mentioning you
6. All your sent and received messages (DMs)
7. Your account profile

Tweetstream uses OAuth and doesn’t asks your twitter password to sign in. It takes some time to Sync and emails you when syncing gets completed. You can download your twitter account data as a backup using the ‘Delivery’ option.

Try it now: https://tweetstreamapp.com/

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