How Complex is the Cloud?

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal “The Problems With Heading Into the Cloud” identifies several “new” issues that are associated with companies moving into the cloud:

• Increased bandwidth requirements
• Data and privacy protection in the cloud
• Vendor lock in.

It is surprising that some of these arguments are sighted as:

• bandwidth speed has increased over 10 fold in the past few years,
• data security and privacy has become a much smaller concern as familiarity with the redundancy and replication procedures in the cloud have become better understood

The article correctly points out,  regardless of what applications and data are in the cloud,  a company must setup and maintain local devices to access the cloud and peripherals like printers and bar code scanners.

A recent Gartner survey found “integration and customization” are the top cloud concerns.  Security is still an important issue, but dropping in significance.

Small Business cloud applications are typically inexpensive, easy to use and out-of-the-box.  These applications are well suited for companies with standard business processes that can use the built in features and functions offered.

As companies grow and evolve, complexity in the business often decreases the effectiveness of the systems unless they offer a high degree of flexibility.  This flexibility can come in the form of configuration flexibility, customization or integration.

The complexity of implementing systems in the cloud is directly related to the complexity of the business systems required by the business.  The complexity to the company using the cloud is directly related to the cloud providers, software companies and service providers selected.

If a generic cloud provider (Amazon, Rack Space, Azure, etc.) is utilized, the company is buying a technology platform outside its premises.  In these environments the complexity and management of IT is still the responsibility of the consumer.  Niche cloud providers like I-Business Network typically remove cloud management from the equation

If an cloud application (NetSuite, Salesforce, Business One Cloud, etc.) is selected, installation and maintenance of the application is now provided by the platform.  Configuration, training and other services are typically provided by third party service providers.

I-Business Network is one of the new breed of “cloud brokers” and full service providers that aggregate and integrate solutions for businesses.  In this model the consumer selects one of the solutions offered to the customers industry.  These solutions are tailored to the industry and then further tailored to the individual business.  The consumer chooses the level of complexity they keep vs. outsource.

Cloud brokers that aggregate and integrate solutions tailored to the industry, and then to the specific businesses, can drastically reduce cloud complexity.

Tags: Business One Cloud, Cloud ERP, Hosted Systems, SAP Business One, SAP Business One OnDemand, SAP Business One Online