June 25th, 2009

Business owners guide to the advantages of cloud computing

NetSuite Pricing

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

Cloud means Internet. The computing takes place on the Internet – in place of the software you use running on your desktop pc, it runs somewhere on the Internet on a server located in a data centre commonly staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is often referred to 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 around $99 per user/month.

There are three substantial benefits for every business here:

Time, cost savings and reliability

Businesses don’t require a permanent systems expert to help them identify, implement and monitor the technology infrastructure thus lowering operating expenses and time to implement. The effort of regularly backing up data is eradicated as this is usually an inherent feature of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” usually have fail over systems that can be brought to bear in minutes should a disruptive failure occur.

Easier selection and wider choice

Using a web browser, businesses now have immediate access to a massive choice of software packages they can in the majority of cases immediately evaluate and rapidly decide if the software fulfils their needs at zero expense. This makes it simple for people in large corporations to by pass the normal information technology purchasing processes and easily evaluate and prove their business proposal.

Superior user experience

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

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