What’s up in office management technology

If you are looking for an easier, more secure, and less expensive way to run your business, look at RB8 Cloud.

Benefits of RB8 Cloud

No server to maintain

With RB8 Cloud, you get the exact same system as if you had RB8 in-house, but without a server, data storage, or an IT staff.

Instead, your RB8 system runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform and infrastructure. This network of remote servers hosted on the Internet stores, manages, and processes your RB data, instead of using your server or personal computer. So it’s always up and always on — no more worries about server crashes. And you no longer have to buy and maintain server hardware or upgrade to the latest version of SQL Server software.

You don’t even have to worry about RB8 system updates because the version in the cloud will always be the latest.

Better disaster recovery

RB8 Cloud is protected by Microsoft SQL Server’s AlwaysOn Availability Groups, which means your RB data is duplicated on multiple servers in real time. If the active server should go down, another server takes over with no loss of data.

This is better than a back-up system, which only saves data up to a specific point in time, so any data entered since the last back-up is lost if something happens to the primary server. With RB8 Cloud, the most you will have to do is re-log in and keep working.

Repository storage included

Your repository is in the cloud too, so you don’t have to worry about those files either. No need to maintain your own data storage facilities or use a 3rd-party data storage site. It’s all part of RB8 Cloud.

More secure

RB8 Cloud is more secure than an in-house system in many ways. One way is open port security: If you’re trying to log in remotely without a secure connection, you do not need to keep the well-known default SQL port open; nor do you need to keep any custom ports open for RB Repository downloads. (And that’s one less thing you need IT to do.)

And since it’s on Microsoft Azure’s Cloud Services, it has security and privacy safeguards beyond what a single court reporting agency could provide.

Economical & scalable

RB8 Cloud saves you money in three areas:

1. Direct costs, such as on-going expenses for electricity to power your server, HVAC to maintain the proper environment in the server room, even the server room itself or other dedicated spaces, such as for your file repository.
2. Indirect costs, such as IT staff to maintain all of that third-party hardware, troubleshooting its problems, fixing software bugs and coordinating with OMTI Support.
3. Hidden costs, such as low productivity due to server downtime or remote connection problems.

You can add or cancel user licenses as needed. The basic system includes one user license. RB8 Cloud also includes 100GB of cloud storage in the basic system. As your business grows, you can add more storage in 500GB increments. If later you don’t need extra storage, you can cancel those additional increments.

Work from anywhere

With your RB system in the cloud, you and your staff are no longer tethered to an in-house server. As long as you can access the Internet, you can work from wherever you want.

One-source solution

Just like RB8’s PDF Transcript Creator and the Form Manager eliminate the need for 3rd-party transcript apps or a word processor, RB8 Cloud eliminates the need for other 3rd-party software, such as SQL Server, or 3rd-party cloud storage or hard disk space in-house for repository files. You no longer have to spend time contacting other service providers to fix issues with their hardware or software. No more telephone tag between your IT staff and RB Support.

RB8 Cloud also makes it easy to add plug-ins because there is less set-up on your end. So you can add Full-Text Search to your RB Web without purchasing your own SQL Server. And Media Streaming without purchasing your own Wowza Server.

Better service for your clients

If you have RB Web online offices, those pages load faster. This improved performance is because RB8 SQL Server resides next to the Web Server in the cloud so information is relayed quickly.

Your RB Web site content is safeguarded to the highest level. According to High-Tech Bridge Information Security Solutions, the security for RB Web sites of RB8 Cloud users is A+.

And your clients get the fastest downloads possible (depending on their Internet connection speed).

No need to move or re-install

Without a physical server, you never have to deal with server crashes, upgrading server hardware, or moving/re-installing your RB Server. You never have to transfer your RB database to another computer in your system and have it re-attached. And with Microsoft SQL Server’s AlwaysOn Availability Groups, you never need to restore your RB database from an earlier back-up.

RB8 Cloud advantages

With all of these pluses, you can see that RB8 Cloud is the right choice for many court reporting and other litigation support agencies.

In a nutshell, RB8 Cloud offers:

• Same RB8 system
• No downtime
• No maintenance
• No SQL Server
• No in-house server equipment
• No lost data
• No need to back up data
• Always most recent version of RB8
• Repository storage included
• More secure
• Connect from anywhere
• One source
• Easily add plug-ins
• Faster speeds from RB Web
• Never have to move servers/databases again

[UPDATE] RB8 Cloud disadvantage: Solved!

With all of this going for it, are you wondering what’s the downside? RB8 Cloud users cannot create custom reports for their business, either with Access or other reporting tools. This is due to security issues with directly connecting to RB databases in the cloud. However, in August 2018, OMTI released Data Reader, a plug-in that allows you to use your RB data in other applications so you can create your own custom reports and more. Of course, if you prefer, we can write custom reports for you. For more information about Data Reader, visit our website.