Considering the Cloud
February 25, 2015
Grazed from CFO. Author: Keith Button.
The cloud computing bandwagon continues to pick up speed, with software-as-a-service (SaaS) arrangements now outselling licensed software. Moreover, cloud computing is winning corporate converts to infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which offers virtual hardware, storage capacity, network connections, and so on; and platform-as-a-service (PaaS), which enables users to build software applications over the Internet.
It’s not surprising that so many companies have migrated to the cloud, given its promise of cost savings, increased flexibility, and greater ease of use. But they still face choices among public, private, and hybrid public-private cloud arrangements. Moreover, there are a number of cost-benefit considerations and risks to address. And for certain applications, on-premises software may still be the best bet…
Cloud Scenarios
Typically, when a company considers moving an application to a SaaS arrangement, the catalyst is a hardware or software upgrade, says Kevin Surovcik, a managing director and IT adviser at Grant Thornton. The company may be running an old version of its on-premises application, “and they hit a point where they’ve got to do a forced upgrade because they’re on a version that’s running out of support,” he says. When the cost of an upgrade approaches the cost of a replacement system, the discussion turns to considering all of the available options, including cloud offerings…
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