Understanding Cloud

Cloud Computing can be seen as the next step in the evolution of the Internet by supplying a method that everything - such as applications, computing infrastructure, computing power, business processes and personal collaborations - is available to you as a service when and where you need it.

The definition of "cloud" in cloud computing can be described as the set of hardware, storage, services, networks, and interfaces that join together to supply aspects of computing as a service. Cloud services incorporate data storage over the Internet, infrastructure, and delivery of software based on end user demand. 

There are four vital aspects of cloud computing:

1. Flexibility and the capacity for scaling up and down.

2. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

3. Self-support provisioning and mechanized deprovisioning.

4. A pay-as-you-go model for billing and metering of service usage.

Cloud computing is available in multiple forms such as; private clouds, public clouds, and a combination of the two - called a hybrid.

People that use cloud computing services are:

• Cloud service providers who manage IT assets and maintenance.
• Business executives who must be accountable for the management of their services and data being stored on the cloud. Cloud providers must make sure their networks are stable and secure.
• Personal users that are not aware of the behind the scenes technology in place.

Businesses that use cloud computing have found that it can eradicate a large amount of complicated obstacles that traditional computing comes with, including time, space, cost and power - completely changing the way they are using technology to service their clients. But, there is a down side if the company you choose does not have proper security or their servers go down. It may be best to use cloud only as a back-up for redundancy.

10 More Motivational Quotes to Start Your Day

Here at Datavo we know that running a business is hard work and you can sometimes start feeling scared and powerless. So we came up with another list of motivational quotes to help you through your day.

• I had to make my own living and my own opportunity! But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them! – C.J. Walker

Richard Branson

• The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try. Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it. – Debbi Fields

• Business opportunities are like buses, there’s always another one coming. – Richard Branson

• I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. – Donald Trump

• Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates

• I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. – Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey

• Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations. – Steve Jobs

• Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. – David Rockefeller

• The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. – John F. Kennedy

• In all realms of life it takes courage to stretch your limits, express your power, and fulfill your potential. It’s no different in the financial realm. – Suze Orman

For more motivational quotes check out our blog 20 Great Motivational Quotes to Start Your Day. Feel free to leave any of your favorite quotes in the comments.

Quiz: Are you a Professional?

The following quiz has 4 questions that will let you know if you are qualified to be a "professional." Each answer is listed below. Hopefully you can pass!

1. How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator?

The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator put in the giraffe and close the door. This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated way.

2. How do you put an elephant into a refrigerator?

Open the refrigerator put in the elephant and close the refrigerator. Wrong Answer!

Correct Answer: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This tests your ability to think through the repercussions of your previous actions.

3. The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend?

Correct Answer: The Elephant. The elephant is in the refrigerator. This tests your memory.

OK, even if you did not answer the first three questions correctly, you still have one more chance to show your true abilities.

4. There is a river you must cross. But it is inhabited by crocodiles. How do you manage it?

Correct Answer: You swim across. All the crocodiles are attending the Animal Meeting. This tests whether you learn quickly from your mistakes.

For more funny business jokes click HERE.

9 Quotes About the Telephone

Take a look at Datavo's favorite quotes on the telephone.

• "Grand telegraphic discovery today ... Transmitted vocal sounds for the first time ... With some further modification I hope we may be enabled to distinguish ... the 'timbre' of the sound. Should this be so, conversation viva voce by telegraph will be a fait accompli." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• 'Watson, ... if I can get a mechanism which will make a current of electricity vary in its intensity, as the air varies in density when a sound is passing through it, I can telegraph any sound, even the sound of speech.' ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• I have read somewhere that the resistance offered by a wire ... is affected by the tension of the wire. If this is so, a continuous current of electricity passed through a vibrating wire should meet with a varying resistance, and hence a pulsatory action should be induced in the current ... [corresponding] in amplitude, as well as in rate of movement, to the vibrations of the string ... [Thus] the timbre of a sound [a quality essential to intelligible speech] could be transmitted ... [and] the strength of the current can be increased ad libitum without destroying the relative intensities of the vibrations. ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• I then shouted into M [the mouthpiece] the following sentence: 'Mr. Watson-—Come here—I want to see you.' To my delight he came and declared that he had heard and understood what I said. I asked him to repeat the words. He answered 'You said—'Mr. Watson—-come here—I want to see you.' We then changed places and I listened at S [the reed receiver] while Mr. Watson read a few passages from a book into the mouth piece M. It was certainly the case that articulate sounds proceeded from S. The effect was loud but indistinct and muffled. If I had read beforehand the passage given by Mr. Watson I should have recognized every word. As it was I could not make out the sense—but an occasional word here and there was quite distinct. I made out 'to' and 'out' and 'further'; and finally the sentence 'Mr. Bell do you understand what I say? Do—you—un—der—stand—what—I—say' came quite clearly and intelligibly. No sound was audible when the armature S was removed. ~ Alexander Graham Bell

• As to Bell's talking telegraph, it only creates interest in scientific circles, and, as a toy it is beautiful; but ... its commercial value will be limited. ~ Elisha Gray

• TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice. ~ Ambrose Bierce

• TELEPHONE, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. ~ Ambrose Bierce

• Every improvement that is put upon the real estate is the result of an idea in somebody's head. The skyscraper is another idea; the railroad is another; the telephone and all those things are merely symbols which represent ideas. An andiron, a wash-tub, is the result of an idea that did not exist before. ~ Mark Twain

• If you had come to me a hundred years ago, do you think I should have dreamed of the telephone? Why, even now I cannot understand it! I use it every day, I transact half my correspondence by means of it, but I don’t understand it. Thnk of that little stretched disk of iron at the end of a wire repeating in your ear not only sounds, but words—not only words, but all the most delicate and elusive inflections and nuances of tone which separate one human voice from another! Is not that something of a miracle? ~  Sir William Crookes

20 Great Motivational Quotes to Start Your Day

Do you find yourself needing motivation? Datavo has collected a few motivational quotes to get the fire inside you burning so that you can be great. 

Leonardo da Vinci

• “Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.” - Leonardo da Vinci

• "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - T.S. Eliot

• “It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.” - Mark Twain

• "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.' " - Muhammad Ali

• “A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts.” - Richard Branson

• “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - André Gide

• “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” - Winston Churchill

Albert Einstein

• “Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” - Albert Einstein

• “We should not teach children the sciences; but give them a taste for them.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau 

• “It matters not the number of years in your life. It is the life in your years.” - Abraham Lincoln 

• “Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself.” - Cicero

• “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” - Michael Jordan 

• “No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess” - Newton 

• “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein 

Nelson Mandela

• “One person with passion is better than forty people merely interested.” - E. M. Forster 

• “When the water starts boiling it is foolish to turn off the heat.” - Nelson Mandela

• “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” - Thomas Edison

• “When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts.” -Larry Ellison 

• “All that counts in life is intention.” - Andrea Bocell

• “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” - Emerson

Feel free to leave any quotes you think we left out in the comments.

24 Important Questions Business Leaders Should Ask Themselves

Datavo knows that in today's market you have to be flexible and ready to move ahead so that your business can continue to be successful. 

If you look at our businesses today, they are all components of an enterprising network of relationships with partners, clients, and suppliers that mold the way we take care of business. With the rising expectations and demands of consumers, small and large business are showing up in all places around the globe. These business conditions can present both pros and cons to an owner.

So when contemplating what methods make your business' run efficiently, make sure these 20 questions are included.

1. What is the purpose for your business existing?
2. Who is your target customer?
3. What are your competitors up to?
4. Has your business adequately changed with the times?
5. Do you have the right leaders employed?
6. How does your business handle change?
7. Are your business practices outdated?
8. Are there better ways to integrate your different business processes, to make them work easier?
9. Are you able to reduce your expenses, without hurting your product?
10. Are you able to automate repetitive actions?
11. Are your systems so slow they are affecting your response time to customers?
12. Do you embrace new technology?
13. Do you ensure that your data is backed daily, in case of a system failure?
14. Is the information on your website current?
15. Are your Customer Service Representatives trained with current business information?
16. If you systems were to go down, do you know how to fix or restart it?
17. Does corporate management share the same goals as the IT department?
18. Are you making the right decisions with the IT and Operations departments?
19. Are you securing your networks properly from outside threats?
20. What part of your budget is for maintenance as opposed to new product development?
21. Do you have the right employees?
22. Are your employees happy?
23. Are you using your employees to the best of their abilities?
24. Do you ask your employees what feedback they are getting from customers on the business?

Feel free to leave any that you think we left off in the comments. 

10 Tips for Better Organizing Your Workspace

Is your desk or office cluttered? Do you have a hard time finding things when you need them? Here at Datavo, we know how important it is to keep your work space organized so that you can maximize your efficiency and become a more productive employee. 

Organizing your office does not have to be a daunting task, it can be done efficiently and in little time. Once your space is organized it can be maintained with minimal upkeep. To get started, just follow these simple tips. 

1. De-clutter. Go through everything in your office and get rid of anything that you do not use. This goes for equipment, furniture, supplies, files, decorations, etc. 

2. Put everything in its place. Go around your office and collect things that are out of place and put them where they go.

3. Keep things you need close. Make sure that things you use frequently are easily accessible and within arms reach. Things that you use less can be put away or in storage.

4. Clear & organize your desk. Remove everything from your desk, only keep items that you must use everyday. Use desktop organizers such as paper trays and paper clip holders to keep things in place.

5. Organize your drawers. Keep like items together. Sticky pads with notepads, stamps with envelopes, etc. Make a separate drawer for your own personal items. 

6. Seperate your inboxes. If you work directly with many people, create a tray, folder or inbox for each.

7. Don't accumulate piles. Once you are fully organized you will hopefully stop having piles of paper sitting around. Go through your existing ones and either file them away or toss them.

8. Read, Sort, Shread. Read all mail the same day it is received; decide whether you will need to act on it, file it, delegate or shread it.

9. Clean your desk. Before you leave each day, do quick clean up of you desk. Put everything back in its place so that you have a clean start each and every day. 

10. File at least once a week. When you let your filing pile up it can become daunting. By setting a specific  time aside each week, it will ensure you stay on top of it. 

Feel free to leave any tips in the comments you think we may have left out.