I was reading an interesting marketing piece the other day about a software product that I won't name. It was a line of business application for a specific vertical that we support at PTG. The piece basically said that since their software was 'Cloud-Based' then no training was required - since you never had training on internet based mail or social media tools (which are cloud based), you wouldn't need training on their software.
After reviewing their software - it was pretty apparent that 95% of the core functionality that any professional would need was clearly missing from their software. Regardless, their type of marketing sells.
We believe in the Cloud. We believe in complexity in the cloud (a la Azure, Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint, SalesForce, hosted QuickBooks etc.) - but remember that you get what you pay for and if you run the numbers on hosted vs. on-premise you may find that the numbers are a lot closer than you think. (Disclaimer: We are not advocating for/against the cloud - we've done 10+ hosted SharePoint projects in the past 5 weeks, I am just saying that be educated and don't just assume that because your favorite social media tools is easy (and free!) that you should be able to run your entire business process in the Cloud.)
I've spoken many times about how much I want to go to Hosted Quickbooks - but it won't integrate with our line of business application AND it is just as expensive as its on-premise sibling.
We think that for most businesses - there will be a balance between on-premise infrastructure and cloud based infrastructure. If you're looking for some help in sorting through the 'clouds', let us know.
