No matter what business you’re in, you will likely hear about the cloud almost daily. While cloud technology has been around for years, it’s evolving like never before, and while companies of all shapes and sizes are still learning to adapt to the technology, others may not even know why or how to leverage it.
Businesses today aren’t only responsible for managing IT professionals, but also for supporting business growth by driving innovation, reducing costs, and building a strategic advantage. Cloud technology can achieve all of these goals by lowering total costs and freeing up resources so that IT executives can focus on strategic business initiatives, rather than basic information storage. ERP solutions are a fundamental tool for ensuring business processes are streamlined, and cloud ERP has a number of other benefits –improving accessibility, reducing capital costs, increasing flexibility – the list goes on and on. However, despite the obvious benefits, there are still many companies who don’t utilize the technology. In today’s business climate, cloud computing is no longer a gimmick – it’s a necessity.
As a technology that’s rapidly advancing, it can be too easy for misconceptions to develop about the cloud. In fact, misinformation is often a top barrier for companies when considering cloud adoption. From total cost to security, here are the top five cloud ERP myths in 2018, busted.
1. Cloud ERP is Difficult to Manage
While many businesses want cloud technology, many are hesitant to invest in it. This is because many businesses believe they don’t have the resources to manage cloud technology since some current employees may lack the skillset or understanding necessary to use it and require re-training.
Actually, when it comes to the cloud, it takes fewer people to do more work. With a minimal learning curve on hardware and software issues, businesses will benefit from cloud technology without having to re-train or dedicate significant resources to manage it and also freeing up time to work on other projects.
2. Cloud ERP is Expensive
Cost is a common myth when it comes to cloud solutions. Many believe that the cost of upgrading an entire system to the cloud is more expensive than staying on-premise, while others believe that cloud is significantly less expensive. This is a tough myth to crack because either could technically be true. Depending on a number of factors such as the amount of applications and data stored, number of users, backup needs, and high availability, cloud ERP could initially cost more up-front. Or, in the vast majority of cases, it costs significantly less.
Subscription payments make it much more practical to utilize an ERP solution without having a large up-front cost, in addition to saving on any future upgrade to existing servers. Businesses also tend to lower IT costs with cloud ERP solutions because there are no hardware, software, or licensing fees, and updates are provided by the cloud provider.
3. Clouds Aren’t Secure
ERP solutions generate valuable business data, so it’s only natural that security comes as a top concern with the cloud. Organizations are generally cautious about giving up visibility and control, particularly in place of business-critical applications.
In reality, clouds are often more secure than on-premise data centers. With 24-hour, 365-day yearly protection from expert security teams, strict policies, periodic audits, and penetration testing for regulatory compliance and automatic hardware and software updates, businesses can be confident that data is protected.
Additionally, utilizing the cloud is a smart disaster recovery solution. No business is immune to disaster. Whether it’s a hurricane, fire, or flood, if your ERP is in the cloud, all information and applications are safe since the cloud always utilizes multiple data centers with geographic dispersity.
4. Moving From On-Premise to the Cloud is Complex
Until just a few years ago, cloud technologies weren’t as developed or refined, and many companies who were early adaptors had to figure out implementation on their own. Stemming from this time period where many cloud technologies were unproven, deployment horror stories emerged, giving cloud solutions a reputation for being burdensome.
This is far from the truth today, and cloud technology is much simpler. Additionally, enterprises no longer have to go it alone. There are many dedicated professional services teams who help enterprises implement the technology. Many also offer cloud training for IT staff.
5. Clouds Will Replace Jobs
Many worry about automation replacing human workers. While cloud computing automates certain tasks, many predict it could actually increase the number of workers in the field. With lower costs and greater ease of use, the growth of cloud computing will enable job growth associated with cloud environments and applications and free up worker’s time since they do not have to manage infrastructure that the cloud provider is doing. Job titles and descriptions may change, but the need for human resources to manage cloud projects remains.
Cloud computing is one of the most transformative technologies to hit the enterprise industry in a very long time. As the majority of businesses have invested at least somewhat in cloud technology, those who have yet to implement it will soon find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. While many myths around the specifics of cloud technology exist, one truth remains – cloud computing will continue to dominate and accelerate successful enterprise digital transformation.