Cloud Services & Cloud Consulting in Boston

What does a cloud consultant do for a small business?

A cloud consultant looks at the systems you run today, recommends what should move to the cloud and what should not, and then plans and supports the change. The goal is a setup your staff can actually work with, not a cloud project for its own sake.

For most small and mid-sized offices, the conversation covers a handful of areas:

• Email, calendars and collaboration in Microsoft 365
• Shared files that live on an aging file server or NAS
• Line-of-business applications and the servers they run on
• Remote access for staff who work from home or travel
• Backups, security settings and who can reach what

Which cloud services do Boston businesses actually use?

Most offices we talk with rely on Microsoft 365 for email and files, and some also run servers in Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Microsoft 365 covers Outlook email, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. Day-to-day help with those tools is part of our Microsoft 365 support, so this page focuses on the bigger decisions: what to move, when and how.

Azure and AWS make sense when you need a server without owning the hardware. We help businesses build environments in Azure, AWS or private clouds, and we stay vendor neutral about which one fits.

Should we move our file server and servers to the cloud?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and it is worth checking before you commit. The right answer depends on your applications, your internet connection, your data and what you expect to pay over the next several years.

• Good candidates: shared documents, email, and simple file shares that people already reach from several places.
• Look closely: accounting databases such as QuickBooks Desktop or Sage, and older line-of-business software that expects a local server.
• Often better local: very large files, equipment that needs a fast local connection, and systems with specific compliance needs.

If your business runs larger server infrastructure or IBM i systems and wants to extend them into Azure or AWS, our hybrid cloud solutions for servers and data centers cover that side. This page is about everyday business cloud for offices: Microsoft 365, file shares and moving a few servers.

How does a cloud migration work?

A good cloud migration is planned, tested on a small group first, and only then rolled out to everyone.

1. Site survey. We inventory your computers, servers and network, map where your data lives and check your backups.
2. Plan. We recommend what moves, what stays and in what order, with costs laid out plainly.
3. Pilot. A few users try the new setup and we fix what they find.
4. Move. We migrate the rest, usually outside busy hours, and confirm everything opens.
5. Support. We clean up old systems and stay on call for questions.

Before anything moves, we confirm there is a recent backup that restores. That one step prevents most migration disasters.

Is data in the cloud secure and backed up?

Cloud providers keep their service running, but the security settings and the data itself are still your responsibility.

We help put the basics in place: multi-factor authentication, controlled user permissions, email security and prompt removal of access when people leave. We also make sure there is a separate copy of your data, through cloud backup services and, for Outlook, OneDrive and SharePoint, Microsoft 365 backup.

How we work with businesses across Greater Boston

We are a family-run IT company based at 335 Auburn Street in Newton (Auburndale), and we have served businesses since 1978. Planning meetings and installs happen on-site anywhere in Greater Boston, and most day-to-day help is handled remotely the same day.

Ongoing support is offered as fixed-price monthly with a defined SLA, on-site work billed per visit, or bundled tiers. If you want a second opinion before signing a cloud contract, our IT consulting and upgrade planning is a good place to start.