Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Small businesses throughout New England and across the United States are joining a new branch of the Occupy movement focused on protesting against "Big Tech". At the heart of the protest: Big Tech companies burden small and mid-size businesses with extra features and extra costs without delivering extra value. The movement, nicknamed Occupy Google Apps (www.occupygoogleapps.org), is encouraging small and mid-size businesses to shed their "Big Tech" burden and move to Google Apps for Business and other cloud computing solutions.

"Small and mid-size businesses drive the economy and job creation, yet the big IT vendors treat small business like unwanted pets", notes Allen Falcon, CEO of Cumulus Global and support of the Occupy Google Apps movement. "These vendors punish with unnecessary complexity and costs."

Some of the gripes among Occupy Google Apps members include: Complex and expensive licensing options; forced hardware upgrades to run updated software; expensive upgrades without relevant new features; time-consuming patches an updates; and misrepresentation of hosted services as cloud computing.

"It is absurd that small businesses are paying consultants to figure out the best licensing option when buying basic software like operating systems and office productivity suites", stated Falcon. "Occupy Google Apps is about easy to use, secure, and reliable services, and only paying for what you need."

Cumulus Global, in support of the Occupy Google Apps movement, is actively helping businesses evaluate their IT services and plan their move to Google Apps and cloud computing. Information is available at www.occupygoogleapps.com or from Cumulu Global at www.cumulusglobal.com.

About Cumulus Global

Cumulus Global, formerly Horizon Info Services, helps small and mid-size businesses, non-profits, governments, and educational institutions thrive by delivering cloud computing solutions. Serving clients from 1 to more than 1000 employees across numerous industries, we align technology with our clients' goals, objectives, and bottom lines. We leverage our expertise, vendor relationships, and a diversified range of best-of-breed cloud services to create custom solutions with tangible value.