Portsmouth Business School Hot Topics Seminar

Cloud ComputingBy

Phil Nicholls, MD Emerge IT Ltd

Cloud Computing

Topics to be discussed today• Background• The fear of losing data in the Cloud• Does the Cloud really save you money?• Lessons from Cloud computing in the

Real World!

• Background

– Emerge provides ERP solutions to SME’s

– Experience in server provision & Cloud services

– ERP = the big challenge to Cloud

Cloud Computing

Jargon

RAID

Redundancy

Disaster Recovery

Fail-over

Backup

Cloud Computing

Hosting SaaSRental or leasing

PaaS

IaaS

SLA

JargonRAID Redundant Array of Independent (inexpensive) Disks

Cloud Computing Accessing computing power on remote computers via the Internet

SLA Service Level Agreement

Redundancy Duplicated resources

Fail-over Ability to automatically use a secondary resource when the primary one fails

Disaster Recovery Ability to get up and running again asap

SaaS, IaaS, PaaS Software/Infrastructure/Platform as a Service

Rental or leasing Paying repeated (smaller) sums over longer periods

Hosting Providing Internet connected servers for clients’ requirements

Backup Saving your data on reliable media in case your servers fail

Losing your stuff

• Access to Cloud storage is no different to access to storage on your PC

• Risk of your in-house server crashing vs a cloud providers server crashing

• Impact of your in-house server crashing vs a cloud providers server crashing

• Level of technology: Yours vs Theirs

Will it save you money?

• Sometimes, yes, sometimes, no• But it will prevent you from spending it all upfront• You don’t necessarily pay less, but you pay

different people for different things• Balance Sheet vs P&L• Make sure you think of everything– Will you be changing your software often?– Will your staffing levels fluctuate wildly?

Cloud in the real world

Real life examples• New ERP solution– 15 user system (£30,000)– Implementation consultancy (£30,000)– Server hardware (£9,000)

• Total 1st year investment £69,000• Annual investment thereafter - £4500– Software maintenance

Cloud in the real world

Real life examples - new ERP solution• Hosted/SaaS– Licences per year £667 p.m. (£8,000 p.a.)– Implementation consultancy (£30,000)– Server hardware £250 p.m. (£3,000 p.a.)

• Total 1st year investment £41,000• Annual investment thereafter - £11,000

Cloud in the real world

Real life examples – new ERP solution

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 6 Year 7 Year 8

Conventional 69000 4500 4500 4500 4500 4500 4500 4500

Cumulative Conventional 69000 73500 78000 82500 87000 91500 96000 100500

Hosted/SaaS 41000 11000 11000 11000 11000 11000 11000 11000

Cumulative Hosted/SaaS 41000 52000 63000 74000 85000 96000 107000 118000

Cloud in the real world

Real life examples• Office– Per user purchased (£220)– Per user per month Office 365 (£8.40)– Annual Office 365 charge (£100.80)

• If you keep your Office application for more than 2 years, the Cloud version is more expensive

Cloud in the real world

Conclusions• Cloud computing and SaaS has its place• Like any other investment you must consider

your situation carefully and decide what your requirements are, long-term as well as short-term

• Cloud computing is a new exciting world, but make sure you understand why you are jumping in before you do

Cloud in the real world

Thank you