Debunking three common cloud-based enterprise software myths

Enterprise software will reside increasingly in the cloud. In some rare situations, on-premise instances of enterprise software will be desirable—for instance in mining of offshore drilling where business operations are in remote areas unserved by reliable connectivity. But for the clear majority of businesses, the objections against cloud are, today, easily discounted. As part of our ongoing blog series on the inexorable move to cloud, let’s debunk some of these enterprise cloud computing myths.

Organizations are recognizing the benefits and are planning to increase reliance on cloud provisioning of software.  According to IDC, cloud computing spending is expected to grow at more than six times the rate of IT spending through 2020. Importantly, IDC also predicts that by 2020, 67 percent of enterprise infrastructure and software offerings will be cloud-based. In 2018 alone, IFS has seen a 300 percent increase in cloud and software as a service (SaaS) revenue from its established customer base and net new customers.

The trend clearly indicates cloud provisioning of enterprise software will become the default, replacing the on-premise instances that were the default as recently as five or six years ago. At that point, data security and control over the software environment were the primary concerns executives had with running enterprise software in the cloud.

Security may be less of a concern than it was then as most IT and operational executives have come to realize something like a Microsoft Azure data center is orders of magnitudes more secure than their own on-premise server room. Control over the instance of software in the cloud may appear to be an issue due to the formal change management process required to move software changes into the live cloud environment. But over time, customers find these Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes used to make changes to their cloud instance of software are there for a reason—to preserve data and functional integrity that could suffer if they made changes themselves without proper validation.

Myth #1: Availability and performance will suffer

For most enterprises, availability and performance will increase in the cloud when compared to on-premise instances of software, particularly for multi-location businesses and for users outside of the four walls of the business. While affordable 100 percent data center availability is still a long way away for most enterprises, most IFS cloud customers look for a contractual commitment to 99.5 percent availability. Since we always try to under promise but overdeliver, IFS therefore delivered 99.8 percent availability during the 2017-2018 planning period.

Organizations often think they must invest heavily to achieve 100 percent availability if they move to the cloud. But 100 percent availability would be cost prohibitive regardless of where software is provisioned. Even if a company has a solution installed in their own data center, achieving 100 percent availability would involve significant cost.

Myth #2: Disaster recovery times will be negatively affected

In fact, the Spice Works 2019 ‘State of IT’ report found 38 percent of respondents cited enhancing disaster recovery capabilities a key driver of moving to the cloud.

But one of the first questions we hear when discussing a move to the cloud is still “how quickly can my data be recovered?” Depending on the size and scale of a disaster, recovery times for an on-premise disaster recovery can range from days to weeks.

IFS, meanwhile, currently provides eight-hour recovery of data, or 24 hours to completely recover a full data center environment. Again, IFS strive to under-promise and over-deliver with capability to reduce recover time to one hour for data and four hours for a full environment.

Myth #3: Handing over the mission-critical business software to a third-party increases compliance risk

With on-premise solutions customers trust they have the right infrastructure and people to support key compliance requirements such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ISO27001 certification for data security management—but these standards can also be achieved in the cloud.

The IFS customers running in the cloud easily comply with both GDPR and ISO27001, and our development team continues to make investments in meeting the latest standards and regulatory requirements so our customers do not have to.

As a global enterprise software provider, IFS has the depth and breadth of skillsets, both internally and among our partners, to provide deeper and more thorough support for changing and evolving business needs in the cloud than our customers ever could on their own. As enterprise software deployments move to the cloud, IFS has made software as a service (SaaS) and managed cloud a key strategic focus.

Go with the flow

The question of moving to the cloud is today a question of “when” rather than “if.” To discuss your options and how your organization can benefit from running enterprise software in the cloud watch out for my next blog, or reach out to your IFS customer service representative or a member of our designated cloud team. To learn more about our cloud offerings, download this brief guide, IFS Cloud Solutions:Your Business Application, Run Your Way.

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Photographer: CaiaimageAgnieszkaOlek