Your Questions About Business Online Backup

Jere answers:

If you are asking for skill-set purposes, then – if possible – you will want to be capable in the most current version. This brings you the widest possible set of potential employers. Employers running v2007 will bring you on if you claim v2011 capable but the reverse is not necessarily true.

To answer your direct question: I know many businesses still running 2007-2009 versions. As long as the program runs, you keep solid backups, you do not use payroll or online banking, there is not much incentive to pay for an upgrade.

The one factor which enters into the equation is that Intuit will stop supporting a version after 3 years. So, if you are running 2007 and it crashes, you may be forced to upgrade.

Difference in versions is sometimes minor. There were very important upgrades in 2009 version (particularly in Online Banking) but v2010 was relatively limited in new upgrades as v2011 appears to be.

Good luck!

Karl Sexton
Accounting On-Call™ Tampa
Accounting | Quickbooks | Tax | Bookkeeping
(813) 641-4262
www.accountingoncall.com

Jere answers:

I’ve been developing software for 8 years now. Cloud-based software, or services rather, are a growing trend because they allow businesses to consolidate / over-commit resources or make particular IT tasks redundant.

Software producers can either sink or they can swim. Many companies do not like the idea of cloud-based solutions from a security and accountability perspective depending on the service and refuse to use them. Others see it as an opportunity to reduce costs and increase services. For example, see Microsoft Office 365 services online (or Google Apps). You can host Exchange yourself but then you’ll either need on-staff IT, servers on-site or at a co-location, you’d have to pay for power, etc. Cloud-based service worries about all of this for you and only costs you a fraction. There is a breaking-point, of course, in terms of manageability and cost as well.

Things to consider for cloud-based services are:
-Accountability of data on the cloud-based service
-Redundancy of service
-Liability of service and data
-Cost of service
-Manageability (is the service customizable? Do you control it? Etc)
-Does it fit with the long-term goals of the business

Cloud-based services are a great way for individuals to license software (See O365), backup data (see onlinefilefolder.com, Acronis online backup, etc.). Virtual Machines and Virtual Servers have been a part of web-hosting solutions for years because they allow companies to commit all of their resources and save money on hardware, software licensing, power and administration. In turn it allows the consumer to do more with less.

Cloud-based computing and services will be a huge multi-billion dollar industry (it already is). It’s the direction we’re headed in whether people like it or not. Compare the paper book publishers with eBook mogul Amazon. EBooks are here to stay and paper-based publishers are going out of business. It’s not sad, it’s just life.

Jere answers:

I would always recommend buying from a store, that way you have the backup of the store and a contact within the store if anything did go wrong or if you had any follow up questions about your piano. I also suggest buying from a store as they should have knowledgeable staff to help with the technical jargon and to help make your decision. There is so much you can read and research from the internet but it doesn’t give you the playing experience, involvement and musicianship you need to have to buy a piano.

Key Player is a family business opened in 1967, the most reliable place to buy a digital piano, even if you order it online in its eshop.

Jere answers:

The newspaper and magazine industries are adapting to the different media model and are not necessarily losing business in the long run. Printed based dissemination of news is migrating to digital form, not only available online, but delivered to mobile devices. Yes, information can be found easily, but readers still seek and demand quality information from reliable and credible sources.

I disagree with Skeptic’s claim regarding periodicals’ reasons for moving from print to digital. Many periodicals continue to offer print versions in addition to digital ones and are doing so based on user demands and expectations (in addition to user benefits such as full text searching). Going digital is not necessary cheaper because of costs involved with backups, long-range storage solutions, the need for higher skilled workers, hardware, etc. In fact, digital subscriptions cost the same (or sometimes even more) as paper subscriptions.

High volume sites can rely on advertising revenue to open information to a greater audience. For example, the New York Times recently eliminated its subscription based online model because it can generate income based on advertising. Increased traffic (=increased advertising revenue) will offset its earnings based on subscriptions.

Jere answers:

Makes much more sense to backup the flash drive on to another flash drive and keep that flash drive off the premises such as a safety deposit box.

To specifically answer your question there is a coverage called a valuable papers and records floater. That coverage is intended to insure written, printed or otherwise inscribed documents, such as books, maps, films, drawings, abstracts, deeds, mortgages, plans, blueprints, etc. It would cover the cost of reproducing those lost or damaged documents up to the policy limit.