INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Five reasons to
leverage cloud
ERP solutions
The cloud has evolved from an emerging
technology that enterprises can leverage to gain
a competitive advantage, to a critical business
enabler that enterprises need to leverage if they
want to stay competitive, writes Monzer Tohme,
Country Manager, Middle East, Infor.
N
ow admittedly there are still
some concerns in the region
around cloud that have slowed
the rate of adoption, but all signs point
to this changing in the near future. In
fact, according to the Cisco Global Cloud
Index, cloud traffic in the Middle East
& Africa (MEA) region is expected to
grow from 31 Exabytes in 2013 to 262
Exabytes in 2018 at a CAGR of 54% and
cloud workloads are expected to grow
at a CAGR of 39% for the same time
period. The same report found that by
2018, Software-as-a-Service workloads
will make up close 59% of all cloud
workloads, representing a CAGR of 33%
from 2013-2018.
AS A RESULT,
ORGANISATIONS
THAT DEPLOY CLOUDBASED APPLICATIONS
SPEND 40% LESS ON
CONSULTING AND 25%
LESS ON SUPPORT
PERSONNEL THAN
ORGANISATIONS THAT
DEPLOY ON-PREMISE
APPLICATIONS
It isn’t hard to understand the
attractiveness of the cloud – a cloudbased ERP solution, for example, can help
free up capital, provide the flexibility to
meet evolving operational needs and
allow you to respond to opportunities in
growth markets. Also, in today’s ‘dogeat-dog’ world, mergers and acquisitions
happen very rapidly, and very frequently.
Reduce costs
Numerous studies show that moving to
the cloud can significantly reduce costs.
According to Nucleus Research, cloudbased implementations typically require
less development and testing resources
and cloud vendors usually provide
much of the application support and
maintenance. As a result, organisations
that deploy cloud-based applications
spend 40% less on consulting and
25% less on support personnel than
organisations that deploy on-premise
applications.
Here are five reasons you should make
the move to the cloud by the end of
this year, or at a very least, have a cloud
strategy in place:
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INTELLIGENTCIO
Speed time to value
With the cloud, deployments are faster,
there are fewer work slowdowns during
implementation and there is no need
to invest capital in upgrading your
infrastructure. Particularly in today’s hyper
competitive world, rapid response is critical
when unforeseen events take place. Unlike
cloud solutions, on-premise applications
aren’t easy to rapidly structure, expand,
and scale up, which can put a company at
a decided disadvantage.
Establish and expand operations
Cloud deployments don’t require you to
install any physical infrastructure, and
as such, it is significantly less expensive
and less time consuming to establish a
business presence in new and remote
locations. If your business venture is
successful, you can quickly and easily
scale the solution to meet your expanding
needs; and if the venture is a bust,
your minimal investment in the cloud
deployment for that location represents
a much smaller loss than you would incur
had you opted for an on-premise solution.
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