If you haven’t heard the phrases ‘Cloud Computing’ and ‘Saas’ (Software as a Service), then you may have been hiding under a rock.

Whether you are reading a blog, surfing the Net or leafing through an IT magazine, you’re bound to come across that terminology. Just by doing a Google search for some industry-related words, the numbers are impressive:

• 63,200,000 hits for Client Server
• 29,500,000 hits for Cloud Computing
• 25,500,000 hits for Software as a Service (SaaS)
• 14,300,000 hits for Active Server Pages (ASP)

While that’s hardly a scientific study, it does illustrate that more and more, Cloud Computing is something that many business owners, corporate leaders and vendors are trying to better understand and consider using for a number of reasons.

Vice President for Research & HR Applications at Gartner, Jim Holincheck proposes in his latest blog entry, ‘Will History Repeat Itself?’, that Cloud Computing and Saas are new computing paradigm and delivery models that are about to take the world by storm. Holincheck goes back in time to look at business applications and how due to market changes, one prominent vendor disappeared off the technology landscape for not staying current with the market trends.

His point is with all that’s going on in the current marketplace, business applications are at a crossroads, and history has a habit of repeating itself. Both customers and vendors have had over 20 years invested in their current client server/ASP software applications, and many wouldn’t dream about making a change.

But with a SaaS or On Demand solution, there are some real value and savings that are added directly to your bottom line by utilizing this new technology. Holincheck sites that in speaking to many customers that already use SaaS add-on solutions, prior to switching over they questioned why they should continue to pay high maintenance fees, to incur large upgrade costs, and to maintain large support staffs with their Enterprise Resource Planning solution. With an On Demand model, there are very real cost-cutting benefits to both customers and vendors.

It is this cost-cutting benefit that is making Cloud Computing turn heads. In ‘How to Cut Costs in the Cloud’, the Coupa Software eBook wisely suggests that saving money is not the responsibility of the few; it should be a priority for every employee in the organization. Whether or not your organization has share holders, each employee should act as if they are being held accountable to shareholders.

One of the biggest obstacles isn’t so much the cost of changing your technology, but one of mindset. Coupa advocates that moving to “The Cloud” is as much a cultural shift as it is technological. It’s about getting the whole organization aligned behind the company’s cost savings initiatives. It’s about encouraging smarter spending practices. And let’s face it, people need and want a common platform from which to operate, which makes it easier for them to participate. It’s about Human Capital Management.

Typically working in the Cloud, software is easier to use. The good news is that the newer cloud-based business applications are built using the same technology and innovations that have made our day-to-day Internet experiences routine and user-friendly.  To read more about best practices in the Cloud, go to Coupa.

Only time will tell how all this will play out, but one thing is for certain: the IT weather forecast is in for some global warming, and there are more clouds on the horizon.

Got Your Head In The Cloud? is a post from: Human Capital Supply Chains

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