Basically, I want to make sure that everyone understands exactly what the cloud is, particularly as it relates to Abila MIP and help you decide whether the cloud is right for your organization.
Grant:
Browsers are just a user interface and represent just one way to view your data in the cloud
Accessing the data from multiple forms, not just a browser
Grant
Thank you Wikipedia!
The idea of the cloud is that your software an the servers that they run on are no longer in your office.
All you need to worry about is the device that you will use to connect to and run your application. Abila MIP in this case.
- Application, Platform, Infrastructure
I hate when presenters read slides and this will hopefully be my only exception…
I will break this definition down on the next slides.
Computing resources: You all have them. We all think of them as servers. This includes not just the hardware but also the Windows user licenses, electricity, and the man hours required to deploy, maintain, backup, and upgrade hardware and software.
It is not uncommon to hear “Our server runs fine, we set it up and never need to touch it. It just works.” That makes me nervous because servers do not maintain themselves and if they are not maintained, you may be on the road to future trouble.
Grant
Image courtesy of http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sun-ships-18-tflops-datacenter-a-box,4757.html
Where is your data, where is your server;
Grant
Image courtesy of http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sun-ships-18-tflops-datacenter-a-box,4757.html
Why would you do that?
Your organization likely relies on trusted advisors today.
Lawyers
CPA’s / auditors
Payroll providers
Regardless of whether it is payroll or cloud computing, there has to be a sound reason to put your trust in someone external to your organization and that is what we will talk about today.
Agility improves with users' ability to re-provision technological infrastructure resources.
Cost
Device and location independence[
Reliability
Scalability and elasticity
Performance
Security
Maintenance
Software required on workstation?
Yes, web browser
Yes, Microsoft RDP and or Internet Explorer
Option to purchase license vs. renting software?
Typically not. If you want to keep using, you keep paying.
Grant:
Replace with our SNO snapshot
Grant
Grant
Do we want to reveal this now? It really helps the message
Cadillac analogy
Lease vs. buy your car
Purchase of extended warranties,
This is the real point of my presentation. Many of the folks that I talk to simply look at the price of the cloud and attempt to decide based on that alone.
There is a reason that you have invested in Abila MIP and don’t use Quickbooks. Quickbooks is great but Abila MIP provides many features that QB does not. Those features were important to your organization and as a result you made the investment in Abila.
Anyone could replicate this infrastructure but it would be very expensive
On that same note, we sometimes see orgs over buy when setting up their servers.
So, compare to what most companies do, hosting will be an increased fee
Compared to replicating the cloud infrastructure, the cloud is much cheaper.
Leasing car vs. buying. Nicer car when leasing.