Oracle Fusion: A Win for Cloud Computing?
May 10, 2012
The Oracle Fusion Applications suite is available in two versions, hosted (and thus in the cloud) and on-site. So far, Fusion customers are showing a marked preference for the hosted version. Their experience may offer insights to IT managers at midsize firms in choosing between cloud or on-site options.
For all of the debate about cloud computing, the primary argument in favor of the cloud is that it provides greater simplicity and convenience to the user, including midsize business users. Oracle’s decision to offer Fusion in both cloud and on-site versions offers an unusually direct comparison of the two approaches…
A Two-Horse Race
The choice between on-site and cloud solutions is usually complicated by other factors. The alternative solutions are typically offered by different vendors, with different features. Thus, considerations unrelated to cloud computing may enter into users’ preferences.
But by offering the Oracle Fusion Applications in both on-site and cloud-hosted versions, Oracle has provided an unusually direct comparison point: same vendor, same application suite, two different ways of obtaining said suite. And as reported by Chris Kanaracus at Computerworld, so far, the cloud is winning this head-to-head competition.
Fusion Applications made its debut last October, after six years of development. It is described as a "superset" of established Oracle solutions, including E-Business Suite and PeopleSoft. And admittedly, Fusion is the first Oracle application suite designed primarily for the cloud, though an on-site version is also available. But so far, according to Oracle executive Chris Leone, most of the 250 customers licensing the software have chosen the cloud version…
One observer, Michael Brown of Colibri, notes that the on-site version of Fusion requires complex identity management, other Oracle middleware, and servers with plenty of memory.
"Let Somebody Else Have the Headaches"
That was how Albina Shekhtman of Abt Associates concisely put the argument for the cloud version of Fusion. Given a toolkit that requires complex installation and expensive software for the on-site version, the cloud argument will be persuasive to many IT managers at midsize firms. But some users, such as IT Convergence, a systems integrator, have chosen the on-site version. The company plans a consulting business and thus wants hands-on experience with the software.
Complexity is not the only cloud tradeoff, for Fusion or any other toolkit. Midsize firms with exceptional security requirements may want maximum control over their data. Other considerations, such as confidence (or lack of) in particular vendors, can play into the choice. And as noted earlier, the choice of on-site or cloud is often a matter of choosing different solutions with different strengths and weaknesses.
But the Fusion experience still provides an interesting example of on-site versus cloud choice for IT managers at midsize firms to mull over.