These days, it seems like everyone is talking about The Cloud. In hushed, reverent voices, not unlike the aliens in Toy Story as they look to the sky and point to their master, The Claw, tech experts and business owners alike talk about The Cloud as if it is the end-all-be-all solution for their company.
Whether for storage, hosting, or altogether unclear purposes, everyone feels like they need The Cloud. In fact, vague cloud announcements have been so prevalent recently that Google used the concept for their April Fools joke this year.
But what are people actually talking about when they talk about The Cloud? To answer that question and demystify cloud environments, we first need to address these questions about the implementation at hand: Where is the hardware hosted, how is the software licensed, and who is responsible for supporting it?
When it comes to hosting, you have two options: internal or third party.
Choosing how your hardware will be hosted, either internally or through a third party, comes down to preference and ability of the organization. Can your company’s members manage the hardware? Do you have the bandwidth to accommodate everything? If not, third party hosting may be the right choice, as they can typically manage the hardware better than their customer, as well as provide better backups and more bandwidth.
Now that you have your hardware hosting figured out, how are you licensing your software? This decision leads to three options: On Premise, Rent/SaaS, and Lease or Finance.
Once the software system is operational, the next decision to make is who will be responsible for supporting the day-to-day operations. Similar to hardware hosting and software licensing, there are many options available:
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of the above hosting, licensing and support combinations. While you may feel that having access to The Cloud is necessary to keep your business current, the most important thing is to choose the option that works best for your organization.
Stay tuned for an upcoming article detailing the specifics of each option to help you decide which combination works best for you. Can’t wait until then? Contact us and we will be happy to answer your questions.
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