Why every business should consider cloud computing

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

All of the technology and business people I regularly talk to keep telling me cloud computing. But what is it, what is the impact on business and what are the economic and tangible upsides?

Cloud means Internet. The computing is done on the Internet – instead of the software you use running on your desktop pc, it’s hosted on the Internet on a server installed in a data centre commonly staffed by people who are skilled in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is commonly known as “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Some good examples of well established Software as a Service are:

Web based CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) – Salesforce.com pricing approximately $9 per user/month.
Small business management and accounting software (small business ERP) – Salesorder.com pricing $45 per user/month.
Medium sized business ERP software – NetSuite pricing approximately $99 per user/month.

There are 3 major benefits for every business here:

Time, cost savings and reliability

businesses do not need a dedicated information technology professional to help them identify, implement and support the hardware and software platform thus lowering operating costs and time to get operational. The burden of vigilantly backing up data is taken away as this is usually an inherent function of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” almost always have fail over systems that can be brought to bear in a very short amount of time should a major error occur.

Easier selection and wider choice

Through the ubiquitous web browser, businesses now have instant access to a big selection of applications they can in the majority of cases immediately evaluate and rapidly establish if the software fulfils their needs at no cost. This makes it simple for managers in large corporations to by pass the restrictive information technology purchasing processes and easily assess and prove their business proposal.

Better user experience

The cloud provides instant feedback to system designers and has driven substantial progress in user interface design resulting in more intuitive software in turn decreasing learning times and improving user satisfaction. This of course means faster adoption and better productivity.

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