Which Cloud Solutions Can Help Your IT Clients Cut Costs?

By Ally Kutz, contributing writer

Cloud-based app and services can help your clients save money, and eWeek weighs in with its pick of the top ten overhead-reducing apps and storage services:

1. Microsoft Office 365. Microsoft Office 365 offers cloud versions of all its applications, as well as support for Skype and its business social network Yammer.
2. Google Apps. Similar to Office 365, Google Apps offers an office productivity suite, Gmail, and cloud-based storage through Google Drive. According to Google, more than 5 million businesses are currently utilizing its service, a number growing substantially each quarter.
3. Zoho. Zoho began as a Web-based productivity solution, but has expanded to have one of the broadest suites of services that most other cloud providers. Zoho offers customer relationship management (CRM), sales tracking, and a help desk for IT departments and finance applications.
4. Box. Box is a popular choice in enterprise storage solutions. Unlike its competitors, Box focuses on businesses before consumers, and with its high-grade encryption, it allows for collaboration between employees and allows for secure access on mobile devices. It comes with 10 GB of free storage.
5. Salesforce.com. The original CRM platform, Salesforce.com has become the go-to sales management tool for businesses large and small. It gives your clients capabilities including managing contacts, tracking leads, and tracking work progress.
6. Parallels. Best known for its Windows virtualization services on Macs, Parallels also has a subsidiary called Odin, which provides multiple tools for enterprises. Odin provides Plesk for web servers and includes server virtualization services for those companies operating in the cloud.
7. NetSuite. Another cloud-focused company, NetSuite provides multiple online application services, including those focusing on enterprise resource planning to professional service automation. NetSuite also offers e-commerce features for companies looking to sell online.
8. Citrix. Citrix offers Desktop-as-a-Service, cloud storage with Sharefile, mobile device management, and application delivery services.
9. Amazon Web Services. Offering expansive cloud computing capacity by way of servers, storage, and networking, Amazon Web Services can accommodate almost any enterprise. Along with capacity, they also offer content delivery, data analytics, and database management services.
10. OpenDNS. OpenDNS offers cloud-based network security services for companies. They deliver enforcement services and web filtering, while also working with several managed services products. They effectively take firewalls and other security features previously stored on internal servers and move them into the cloud.

See the complete slideshow at eWeek.