"We're all in" Cloud computing. Or are we?

Here's the latest guest post from Senior CRM Consultant, John Odell:

As other entries on this blog will attest, I was recently at Microsoft's annual World Partner Conference (WPC) at which the overriding, overbearing message was about "Cloud" (note the capital C) - aka "Online"; "Software as a Service"; "Hosted CRM"; "Subscription software.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's Chief Executive Officer started proceedings with an exposition of Microsoft's Cloud strategy - "We're all in" being the call to arms.

If you really want to you can watch it:

http://digitalwpc.com/Videos/VisionKeynoteVideos10/1/SteveBallmer

I'm surprised to see on the video timer that it only lasted 22 minutes as it seemed a lot longer when I was sat there (if you look really really closely you can almost see me...)

Now, I'm a big fan of Steve and I'm a big fan of Cloud, especially what is coming very soon for Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics NAV (two of our core products) at the end of 2010 / start of 2011. I'm even quite excited about Azure, although I can't quite put my finger on why.

What I'm not a big fan of is business jargon and buzz-terms (except for "leverage", I do like "leverage”) - but in this case "game changing" seems apt if Microsoft deliver on their Cloud promises - and it really does look like they will.

However I'm not quite ALL IN, although I'm pretty significantly IN. Not entirely IN, but definitely IN quite a bit.

And the reason why I'm not all IN and why I think on-premise deployments of business process system won't suddenly die off is probably 5 fold:

1. I'm naturally sceptical and a bit chippy, so if I'm told to be "all in" I'm definitely not going to  be. Being serious briefly: Scepticism is important - it helps anchor our "CRM and ERP product agnostic" (OK, that's three buzz-terms I like) approach and remain independent when advising our customers.

2. Some people just don't like it. Although I think a lot of those people will come round to realising that the obvious anti-Cloud arguments (security of data, availability of service etc.) are less compelling now that the offerings have matured, some organisations will still opt for on-premise for reasons of policy.

3. Connectivity: No internet connection = no Cloud = no business. There are still a lot of businesses where connectivity is an issue - and who is to say there won't always be?

4. Technical / functional: Sometimes on-premise will simply work better. One of the things Concentrix specialise in is integrating CRM and ERP with other business systems - in some cases legacy systems and things that really don't want to be integrated with. Sometimes this will mean that, for technical and functional reasons, on-premise is going to be the preferred option until those legacy systems get replaced.

5. Financial: I think this is the big one. Right now, economic armageddon not withstanding, a lot of businesses / organisations still like to treat projects as capital expenditure. The Cloud is an overhead, which is going to be great for many many people - but not everyone. I think that the advances we are seeing now in Cloud computing will remove so many of the previous technical / functional barriers and break down the "don't like" objections that the decision to go Cloud - a fundamental IT and line of business decision - will come down to the Finance Director. And that's no bad thing, I like Finance Directors.

So, where to now? Well I'm off to Microsoft tomorrow for more Cloud strategy. We'll be playing with the Cloud and on-premise Beta releases of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 very soon and we'll be seeing (and recommending that) a lot more customer go Cloud.

We're INterested, we're INvolved, we're INdependent and we've got the INside track. If you want to find out if you could / should be IN then drop us a line.

And that’s INough of that.

Comments

[Arijit]

I just want to add that security is one big issue which cloud still is grappling with. One point I really liked, which you don't come across from posts of so called developed countries, the issue of connectivity. I'm from India, and there's a huge market of cloud computing (as its far cheaper to go for), but people don't want to invest as connectivity is still an issue. A huge one I should say.

[John Odell]

Thanks for your comment Arijit. I think we both would agree that one needs to look at solutions on a global basis.

I think your point sums up the connectivity issue perfectly - as with most "game changing technologies" from mainframes to mobiles: The technology is there but to make it useful to people there needs to be an "enabler".

John