How SAAS and the Cloud are Impacting Business Operations

As more and more applications move from in house or “premise based” to Software as a Service (SAAS) and the Cloud, Business Operations will never be the same.

Nearly every application currently running on premise based systems is moving to the cloud in the form of SAAS.  This will mean fewer IT support personnel, applications accessible from Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and more.

First of all, let’s clarify what we consider to be “the cloud.”  Amazon, a leader in the development of the cloud defines it as “the on-demand delivery of IT resources via the Internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.” 

Software as a Service is essentially software for rent rather than for purchase and the applications run on the cloud rather than on a premise based server. Google, Facebook, Twitters and Flickr are all examples of SAAS.  They all run in the Cloud. Most software developers are racing to move their applications from premise based to cloud based.

If you have not yet tried a SAAS application or considered moving some of your existing applications to the Cloud, now is the time.  Advantages of cloud based applications include:

• Reduced infrastructure costs.  Access to SAAS applications and the cloud is available from a low cost desktop, laptop, tablet and many now are available via mobile apps.  The easiest application to check out is Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  Nearly all of the premis based CRM systems as well as newcomers that are priced very aggressively are available as SAAS on the cloud.
• No up front costs.  Nearly every SAAS implementation is priced by the month and you simply sign up and get started.  There are normally priced by the user but are still more affordable than buying and maintaining infrastructure.
• Apps, not Ops – Amazon says “Cloud Computing lets you shift resources away from data center investments and operations and move them to innovative new projects.”
• Flexibility and Global Reach – Applications can be deployed very quickly and available globally right out of the box.

Clickipedia recently polled several industry experts as to how they see the cloud evolving and how SAAS will be used.  Here are a few of the observations and suggestions:

Mark Levitt says “Just try some… The easiest type of cloud service to try is Software as a Service (SaaS) cloud services because they often involve business applications with which users are already familiar. Go ahead and set up a trial subscription for web conferencing, content authoring, or customer relationship management (CRM) and start using it.” 

Jared Wray says: “Businesses need to move the cloud, simply because they are at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t.” 

Please check the links in this article and get yourself up to speed as quickly as possible. 

If you would like help understanding how these technologies will impact your business, please feel free to contact us.