Cloud Based Software

[arfur mo]

With so many products trying to switch us to cloud based products, is this to soon?

I use Intuits Quickbooks, they offer desktop and cloud based systems, much as Office 365 amongst others.

Given the fun and games O2 had, with their mobile services going down i am reticent to trust others services so fully. i do lodge backups on several free services, and I can see the advantages of working from anywhere i have WiFi, and if my laptop breaks-down or is stolen, but my fear is of losing access.

Eggs all in one basket, the VAT man won't be to happy if all my records are now trashed due to a remote software service server being hacked as example.

what do others think?

[matthew.brough]

The benefits of cloud outweigh massively on premise solutions, especially in terms of cost.

On premise deployment will be come as alien as the idea of using analogue mobile phones.

[arfur mo]

Hi Matt,

Once software is in transferable file format, larger companies tend to push deployment from a main server, so only a slight advantage in cloud based option here as i see it. An issue i see you pay an ongoing subscription, stop paying i'd guess program ceases to run. with no access, your data is now frozen?

[matthew.brough]

Depends on the cloud offering but yes that's normal. Stop paying, stop using.

We do that with a lot of our customers as does James and Pete. Stop paying your CCTV stops recording and so does your ability to pull footage.

I think you have missed the huge point of cloud. Cost. We have an on premises solution of Microsoft Exchange. Costs £10k plus ongoing maintenance. Cloud based version of the same thing, £3 a month with no capex.

We are going to be doing the very same with MAS for other alarm companies. Those that want to have their own arc but don't have £500k to deploy MAS and run one can rent space on ours without any capex or headache with the added benefit our staff can pickup the alarms if needed.

Shared resource is very much the future. Clearly Microsoft have seen that their traditional model will disappear with the likes of office 365. Adobe have just done it with creative cloud. You can't buy it any other way now.

[arfur mo]

i do get it for big concerns, or those that want to sub rent in, i just hate being totally reliant on them.

example, i have an old copy of office xp, i can still use it to resurrect and old pc as an emergency, i had to do similar with quickbooks, it suddenly refuses to load on a W8 machine, moved to wife's W7 laptop it worked for a few days then stopped. i'm now running it on an old Lenovo laptop on XP.

i worry i would not have such emergency recovery available, have to rely on a call centre based wherever in the world, and that means usually explaing the problem several or even dozens of times .

[matthew.brough]

That's why I have all my stuff on premise deployed

The cost of this really is prohibitive though to a lot of people.

 

As someone who sells cloud services I love the control it has over the client. Don't pay, it doesn't work.

[arfur mo]

That's why I have all my stuff on premise deployed

The cost of this really is prohibitive though to a lot of people.

 

As someone who sells cloud services I love the control it has over the client. Don't pay, it doesn't work.

i suppose thats the difference in our outlook, with me once paid for its all theirs. Seems at least some Clients agree as i would not sell much at all otherwise .