Starting out, what do we need? We have to be able to communicate with our customers and suppliers, so we need email, perhaps instant messaging. If we have overseas or long distance clients, some kind of VOIP phone would help to keep costs down.
首先，我们需要什么？ 我们必须能够与我们的客户和供应商进行沟通，因此我们需要电子邮件，也许是即时消息。 如果我们有海外或长途客户，则某种VOIP电话将有助于降低成本。
We must ensure that anything we’re working on is properly backed up—from the business plan to product concepts and beyond. Any loss of data could be crucial when getting your product or service to market at the right time. Keeping an eye on our schedule is vital to make sure important events, tasks, and meetings are managed.
我们必须确保正确备份我们正在处理的所有内容，从业务计划到产品概念等等。 在正确的时间将您的产品或服务推向市场的任何数据丢失可能至关重要。 密切注意我们的日程安排对于确保重要事件，任务和会议得到管理至关重要。
There’s a lot more to address, but this much is enough to get us up and running so we can get about the business of doing business. But if you’re not an IT person and you don’t know how to setup email servers or backup systems, where do you begin
还有很多要解决的问题，但这足以使我们启动并运行，因此我们可以开展业务。 但是，如果您不是IT人员，并且不知道如何设置电子邮件服务器或备份系统，那么应该从哪里开始呢？
Google has been a provider of innovative products in the cloud for some time, but many are unaware just how powerful these applications can be. Gmail, for example, offers free email accounts with enormous amounts of storage, and an easy-to-use interface. Your email can be accessed from anywhere, you never have to delete as everything can be archived, and backups are taken care of for you. The only issue is that you may want to avoid sending emails to a big potential client from an anonymous, free Gmail account; to make a proper impression, you need to be able to have your own email address under your company name.
Google一直是云中创新产品的提供商，但是许多人并不知道这些应用程序有多强大。 例如，Gmail提供了具有大量存储空间和易于使用的界面的免费电子邮件帐户。 您可以从任何地方访问您的电子邮件，您无需删除它，因为所有内容都可以存档，并且备份由您自己处理。 唯一的问题是您可能要避免从匿名的免费Gmail帐户向潜在的大客户发送电子邮件； 为了给人留下适当的印象，您需要能够在公司名称下拥有自己的电子邮件地址。
Google can still help you here, though; you can actually use the Gmail system with your own domain name. As long as you have a domain, you can purchase a Google Apps for Business account for the trifling sum of US$50 a year, which lets you transfer your email hosting to Google’s servers. It’s a very simple process, and once done you have full IMAP access to your email from anywhere in the world, with a guarantee of availability and uptime that few can compete with—certainly not in a small business.
Google仍然可以在这里为您提供帮助； 您实际上可以通过自己的域名使用Gmail系统。 只要您拥有域 ，就可以购买Google Apps for Business帐户(每年50美元的小额支出)，从而可以将电子邮件托管转移到Google的服务器上。 这是一个非常简单的过程，一旦完成，您就可以从世界任何地方对电子邮件进行IMAP完全访问，并保证可用性和正常运行时间，几乎没有人可以与之抗衡-当然不是在小型企业中。
The cost increases as you add more email accounts, but it’s still less than you’d pay to host a server with your own email software on it. You can set up a normal email client like Outlook or Apple mail to use the server, or use the user-friendly Gmail interface on the Web. This means that no matter what happens, you’ll always have access to email and the ability to send from your own email address, even if your personal computers fail. There are more great benefits to using Google Apps, but we’ll explore those in the next article. For now, check out Google Apps for Business to get up and running with your email.
成本随着您添加更多电子邮件帐户而增加，但仍然比托管带有自己的电子邮件软件的服务器所需的费用少。 您可以设置一个普通的电子邮件客户端(如Outlook或Apple Mail)来使用服务器，或使用Web上用户友好的Gmail界面。 这意味着无论发生什么情况，即使您的个人计算机出现故障，您也始终可以访问电子邮件并可以通过自己的电子邮件地址进行发送。 使用Google Apps的好处更多，但我们将在下一篇文章中探讨。 目前，请查看Google Apps for Business以启动并运行您的电子邮件。
To keep in touch with any collaborators or staff you put on, you may need to organize conference calls or chats. Skype has a free client you can download for most platforms, and you can make free Skype to Skype voice and video calls, as well as use text instant messaging and screen sharing. With just one tool, you can get the message across in a number of ways.
为了与您所雇用的任何合作者或员工保持联系，您可能需要组织电话会议或聊天。 Skype具有免费客户端，您可以在大多数平台上下载该客户端，还可以向Skype进行免费的Skype语音和视频通话，以及使用文本即时消息传递和屏幕共享。 只需使用一种工具，您就可以通过多种方式传达信息。
Skype has the added bonus of being able to record conversations, and you can arrange multi-person voice calls for free. If you want to go a step further, you can set up Skype-In and Skype-Out accounts, which give you a phone number people can call from a standard phone that’s routed to Skype, but there are costs associated with them.
Skype的附加好处是可以记录对话，并且您可以免费安排多人语音通话。 如果您想更进一步，可以设置Skype-in和skype-out帐户，这将为您提供一个人们可以使用路由到Skype的标准电话拨打的电话号码，但与此相关的费用。
Back up, back up, back up—even the most computer illiterate these days know that you need to back up your information, or face a catastrophe when it goes wrong. Until recently, achieving proper backups took quite a bit of knowledge and setting up, and in some cases great expense.
备份，备份，备份-即使是当今最不识字的计算机，也知道您需要备份信息，或者在发生错误时面临灾难。 直到最近，实现正确的备份还需要大量的知识和设置，并且在某些情况下还需要大量费用。
For a small business, the best situation is to be able to do your work while it’s taken care of, knowing that backups are being done if you need them, while you focus on building your empire. Enter DropBox, a brilliant online service that lets you store files in a folder on your computer (or any number of subfolders inside it) and they’ll automatically be copied up to the server—without you doing anything. You just keep all your documents under the DropBox folder and backups happen automatically. Not only that, but your files are versioned; every time you make a change to the file that version is uploaded and kept, so you can even roll back to previous versions if necessary.
对于小型企业而言，最好的情况是能够在照顾好自己的情况下完成工作，同时知道在需要时进行备份，同时专注于建立自己的帝国。 输入DropBox ，这是一项出色的在线服务，可让您将文件存储在计算机上的文件夹(或其中的任何子文件夹)中，它们将被自动复制到服务器上，而无需您进行任何操作。 您只需将所有文档保存在DropBox文件夹下，即可自动进行备份。 不仅如此，还对文件进行了版本控制； 每次更改文件时，都会上传并保留该版本，因此，如有必要，甚至可以回滚到以前的版本。
DropBox has additional powerful features, like the ability to share any folder within your DropBox folder. You simply enter the email address of the colleague you want to share with; once they have DropBox installed, the shared folder and files will automatically be copied to their own computer. What’s more, every time you make changes to files in that folder, they’ll be copied to the server and your colleague’s computer, and vice-versa.
DropBox具有其他强大功能，例如可以共享DropBox文件夹中的任何文件夹的功能。 您只需输入要与之共享的同事的电子邮件地址； 一旦安装了DropBox，共享文件夹和文件将自动复制到他们自己的计算机上。 此外，每次您对该文件夹中的文件进行更改时，它们都会被复制到服务器和同事的计算机上，反之亦然。
All of this is free, up to a storage limit of two gigabytes. From thereon there’s a cost involved, but 2GB is enough to start with backing up your important documents, and the cost of increasing your storage is very low.
所有这些都是免费的，最大存储容量为2 GB。 从那时开始，这涉及到成本，但是2GB足以开始备份您的重要文档，并且增加存储空间的成本非常低。
When you’re building a business, the task list never stops growing. Between meetings, deadlines, and to-do items, it can become hard to organize everything. But if you put it all into a calendar on your computer, it can remember it for you, even help with sending reminders.
建立业务时，任务列表永远不会停止增长。 在会议，截止日期和待办事项之间，可能很难组织一切。 但是，如果将它们全部放入计算机的日历中，它可以为您记住它，甚至可以帮助您发送提醒。
Calendaring is also important for scheduling meetings and other arrangements with third parties. A decent calendaring system will enable you to send invites to an event and receive confirmation of attendance (or the reverse).
日历对于安排与第三方的会议和其他安排也很重要。 体面的日历系统将使您能够向活动发送邀请并接收出席确认(或相反的确认)。
Once again, Google provides a solution that can even integrate and communicate with iCal on the Mac and Outlook on the PC, so you can send and receive invites with anyone. Gcal, or Google Calendar, is a cloud-based solution that you can log into and set up completely free calendars to share with other people. You can access the calendar from your mobile phone, receive event reminders via email or text messages, and even share your schedule online so that the right people can see when you’re available. Best of all, Gcal even works when you’re not connected to the Internet via a feature called offline access. It can sync with other desktop calendar apps as well, so you gain the benefit of sharing and collaborating online while accessing your calendar however you prefer.
Google再次提供了一种解决方案，该解决方案甚至可以与Mac上的iCal和PC上的Outlook集成并进行通信，因此您可以与任何人发送和接收邀请。 Gcal或Google日历是一种基于云的解决方案，您可以登录并设置完全免费的日历以与他人共享。 您可以通过手机访问日历，通过电子邮件或短信接收事件提醒，甚至可以在线共享日程安排，以便合适的人看到您的空闲时间。 最重要的是，当您没有通过称为离线访问的功能连接到Internet时，Gcal甚至可以工作。 它也可以与其他桌面日历应用程序同步，因此您可以随意访问日历，同时获得在线共享和协作的好处。
The Google Calendar is also integrated with Google Apps, so you gain combined benefits if you sign up for Google Apps for email as well.
Google日历还与Google Apps集成在一起，因此，如果您也注册了Google Apps的电子邮件，那么您将获得共同的利益。
If you’re scheduling meetings with people in different time zones, it can be handy to use World Time Server. This service lets you see times and dates all over the world, and by picking the cities in which a list of attendees are situated in, lets you see what time might best suit everyone. And it’s totally free! Check it out, and see the meeting planner at http://www.worldtimeserver.com/meeting-planner.aspx.
如果您要与不同时区的人安排会议，使用World Time Server会很方便。 通过此服务，您可以查看世界各地的时间和日期，并选择参加者列表所在的城市，从而查看最适合每个人的时间。 而且完全免费！ 进行检查，并在http://www.worldtimeserver.com/meeting-planner.aspx上查看会议计划者。
So for a minimal cost, if at all, you can have a full business operation up and running, with better interaction and collaboration than what some of the bigger businesses experience. This is the real promise of the cloud, and now it’s actually feasible for small business users as well as techies. Best of all, once it’s set up you can forget about it; someone else is managing the data, power, backups and availability for you. If you want to be up and running as fast as possible, and you lack having the techs on hand, you can’t beat the cloud.
因此，以最低的成本(如果有的话)，您就可以启动并运行完整的业务运营，并且与某些大型企业相比，可以更好地进行交互和协作。 这是云的真正承诺，现在对于小型企业用户和技术人员来说实际上都是可行的。 最重要的是，一旦设置完成，您就可以忘记它。 其他人正在为您管理数据，电源，备份和可用性。 如果您想尽快启动并运行，而又缺乏手头的技术，那么您将无可匹敌。
In the next article, we’ll take a look at managing daily business operations in the cloud using online applications, customer relationship management, and more to really pump up your business.
在下一篇文章中，我们将看一下使用在线应用程序，客户关系管理等来管理云中的日常业务运营，以真正促进业务发展。
Image via twobee / Shutterstock
图片来自twobee / Shutterstock
翻译自: https://www.sitepoint.com/what-cloud-computing-can-mean-for-your-business-part-ii-starting-your-cloud-infrastructure-2/
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