Every business person and journalist I know is talking about the benefits of cloud computing. But what is it, what is the impact on business and what are the monetary and tangible benefits?

Cloud means Internet. The computing is done on the Internet – instead of the software you use running on your computer, it runs somewhere on the Internet on a server installed in a data centre commonly staffed by people who are experts in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is commonly known as “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Some best of breed examples of well established Software as a Service are:

Web based CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) – Salesforce.com pricing approximately $9 per user/month.
Small business management and accounting software (small business ERP) – Salesorder.com pricing $45 per user/month.
Medium sized business ERP software – NetSuite pricing around $99 per user/month.

There are a number of substantial benefits for every business here:

Time, cost savings and reliability

Businesses don’t require a dedicated IT expert to help them select, bed in and maintain the technology platform thus cutting operating costs and time to implement. The burden of continuosly backing up information is eradicated as this is usually an inherent feature of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” often have fail over systems that can be brought to bear in a very short amount of time should a major failure occur.

Easier selection and more choice

With just a web browser, businesses now have 24/7 access to a big selection of software packages they can in the majority of cases immediately try and effectively decide if the software meets their needs at minimal cost. This makes it effective for innovators in large enterprises to get around the usual information technology buying processes and easily test and justify their business case.

Superior user experience

The net provides rapid feedback to application architects and has fuelled substantial progress in user interface design resulting in easier to use software thus lowering learning times and increasing user satisfaction. This of course means quicker adoption and better productivity.

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