Should You Consider the Cloud? (Part 2)
The Savvy CIO’s last post detailed the main advantages and challenges of moving business software into the cloud, concluding “The question is not if you should move tasks to the cloud, but what and when.”
How do you decide what and when to move to the cloud? The answer is NOT everything and now.
Jonathan Blum at CNN offers a good reminder that moving to the cloud isn’t the magic bullet for every problem your business faces. But a carefully considered what and when can gain solid rewards from using the cloud.
Choose a Target
Where is time being wasted or opportunities being lost? Communication? Customer relationships? Sales? Project management? Document storage and retrieval?
Your biggest challenge is a prime target to move to the cloud, addressing a significant problem without a large initial cost. A trusted advisor or a Google/LinkedIn search can lead you to the best cloud platforms in an area.
Know the Cost
Pay careful attention to the pricing structure of a cloud platform. Some offerings have tiered pricing that are attractive for low needs and low cost entry, but can add up quickly as you begin to take real advantage of the platform.
For example, very basic access to Salesforce.com only costs $9 per user per month. But the fully featured Salesforce.com maxes out at a costly $250 per user per month. Not all cloud platforms scale in this way, but a careful analysis of costs and returns are needed before making a move to the cloud.
Plan for the Future
Before making the move, ask questions that will be important two or five or eight years from now:
- How difficult is it to migrate out of this platform?
- Does the platform scale well?
- Will this platform integrate openly with other systems?
Have a good or bad experience moving to the cloud? Tell us about it below.
[...] Stay tuned for upcoming posts on small business “MUST DOs” of choosing and implementing CRM, content management and collaboration cloud solutions. See our thoughts on moving to the cloud here and here. [...]