Moving your document management to a cloud-based solution is not a straight-forward decision,

there are benefits and disadvantages. We look at the current state of document management

software and how to think through the process of moving to the cloud.

To The Cloud or Not To The Cloud

That is the question, for document management systems

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Salesforce.com Redux

Companies are at a key time in the evolution of document/contents

management for their companies, a time similar to the early 2000’s

when Salesforce.com came on the scene. (For the sake of this

paper, we will refer to all file types as documents, so for expediency

sake this includes digital files from CAD programs, MS Office

programs, web-based content, emails, video, audio, etc.). Around

the beginning of this century, many senior executives and IT

professionals were questioning the prudence of placing some or all

of their client relationship information on a system not residing in

the company’s managed data center, outside their firewall. All sorts

of predications were made of the possible bad consequences that

could transpire.

Of course, more than 10 years later we now know using a cloud

provider (SaaS or not) not only makes sense but provides

considerably more value to companies than implementing an on-

premise solution for their CRM application. Similarly, companies

are looking at moving some or all of their document management

solution to the cloud. And yet again, senior executives and IT

professionals are questioning the correctness of taking this route.

What Exactly Is The Cloud

The definition of a cloud solution has become very muddy over the

years as various implementations and services have used the term.

For our purposes, the cloud shall mean any application that is being

run outside the corporate data center and requires access through

the Internet. (There are, of course, some cloud oriented systems

being run by corporations in their own data centers, but these are

the same old systems using a different conduit.) So the cloud-based

application can be hosted by a third party, by the application

provider, or even the corporation in a data center outside the

normal four walls of the organization. The key is the software is

accessed using the Internet and is being executed outside of the

corporate firewall.

Salesforce.com was one of the

first true watershed applications

that proved utilizing an Internet-

based SaaS (Software-as-a-

Service) application for mission

critical functions was not only

possible but highly efficient and

effective. The evolution of

Salesforce.com has mimicked

the level of comfort large

corporations have with this new

technology.

Large companies, like Merrill

Lynch, initially were reluctant to

use SaaS technology without the

ability to control and customize

their applications.

Salesforce.com responded by

providing a PaaS solution

(Platform-as-a-Service) whereby

Merrill could leverage

Salesforce.com’s platform yet

maintain control over the

application and custom

requirements they believed to

be unique to their organization.

Platform flexibility gives cloud

providers the agility to meet

various corporate needs with

cost effective operations that are

highly scalable.

Salesforce.com was not the only

cloud provider of the day, others

like Amazon, Workday, and Intuit

also contributed to the

momentum of cloud based

applications, typically as a SaaS.

The decision to move the corporation’s document

management application to the cloud is not a straight-forward

decision for many organizations due to a number of factors.

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Benefits and Disadvantages of

The Cloud

As in most decisions, there are often pros and

cons to making a change. Though, in general,

we know the world is moving towards more

“cloud-based” solutions, it still may not be the

right move for every company, especially for

overall document management.

The biggest benefit is also the biggest

disadvantage; the cloud-based document

management solution is managed outside the

routine IT infrastructure. Benefits of being

outside the corporate IT four walls:

Improved document and database

security

Reduced involvement needed of

corporate IT departments

Enhanced access to documents from

non-traditional locations

Greater scalability

Lower total operating costs (usually).

Improved document and database security:

This is often not intuitive for many users. The

expectation is the corporate environment is

locked down and highly protected. The reality

is internal IT infrastructure is frequently way

behind in industry standard system protection,

is often managed by understaffed IT

departments, and involves legacy systems and

networks built years before the sophisticated

security intrusions we see today.

By their very nature, cloud-based providers

must be highly secure, using focused

operations groups with nothing but security on

their minds. Think about your business, and

the critical elements you manage, and the

issues that would arise with customers if you

weren’t fully focused.

Reduced involvement needed of corporate IT

departments: As much as IT departments

would like to think they have everything in

control, the actuality is technology is just

moving too fast and staffing has not kept up.

Supporting users and user applications, though

very high on the list, is just one of a long list of

mission items. All too often the IT group is

slowing down user access and installation of

new and highly beneficial applications. Cloud-

based solutions, while not totally excluding IT,

certainly reduce their management and

operating burdens.

Enhanced access to documents from non-

traditional locations: With today’s mobility and

access to websites anywhere, it is curious that

corporate America is still living with walled-off

legacy systems that can only be accessed and

utilized while in the office. So much additional

functionality can be derived from employing

operational and support systems from outside

the office, at other office locations, and through

mobile devices. Documents in the cloud allow

for access and collaboration from almost

anywhere, using almost any device.

THE BIGGEST BENEFIT IS ALSO THE

BIGGEST DISADVANTAGE; THE SOLUTION

IS MANAGED OUTSIDE THE ROUTINE IT

INFRASTRUCTURE

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Employee Consumerization

Use of tablets and smartphones has

exploded, and employees expect to

be able to use these devices to

connect and work with their daily

applications, just as they would at

their desk. Unfortunately, legacy

systems are not prepared to

interface to many of these devices,

either because they don’t recognize

the web browser or have screens

designed for much larger viewing

areas. Moving to the cloud often

addresses this as cloud-based

systems are typically built with

mobile access in mind.

Greater scalability: Cloud providers are all

about versatility and effective use of server

assets, so they are acutely ready to scale up and

down quickly, as needed by the client and

application. This means adding data, new

databases, high resource delivery methods

(e.g., required for HD video and gigabit files), or

just plain processing power, it is more likely that

you’ll get quicker response at less expense in

the cloud.

Lower total operating costs: The costs to

provision and manage infrastructure are

frequently lower in cloud applications. Some of

this is due to scale (many cloud providers are

very large), some due to application of fixed

assets over many clients, and some due to

better management of IT resources. For third

party managed solutions, these savings are

weighed against the margins the organizations

must get, but are usually more than sufficient to

provide lower costs to the users.

The Disadvantages

The disadvantages of moving to the cloud for

document management include:

Need to migrate large datasets

Important intellectual property residing

outside the corporation

Additional time required to download

large documents.

Need to migrate large datasets: Corporate

documents have grown substantially in the last

few years and continue to increase at a mind

boggling rate, partly generating the need for

formal document management systems.

Ironically, it is the sheer number of these files

that presents the largest obstacle to moving to

the cloud. These large datasets

take significant time to copy and migrate to

cloud-based applications. One way to mitigate

this obstacle is to employ a hybrid system

(discussed further below).

Important intellectual property residing

outside the corporation: All of a company’s

intellectual property (IP) is represented within

its documents. Some of this IP is considered

highly confidential and mission critical. For

years, the notion that any of this IP could reside

outside the corporate firewall was heresy.

Much of this culture lingers and senior

executives and IT departments still feel

uncomfortable allowing any of these

documents outside the corporate network.

Given the security improvement in the cloud,

much of this is unwarranted perception. But as

it is said, perception is often reality.

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Additional time required to download large

documents: As technology speeds ahead there

will be increasing bandwidth for file movement

and cloud connectivity. Unfortunately, many

companies are still stuck with existing provider

relationships, some even in DSL arrangements.

Moving 30 or 50 Megabyte files from the cloud

to the desktop or mobile device can still take

some time, upwards of 3 to 5 minutes,

depending on the corporate connection to the

Internet. High speed, even Gigabit networks,

will significantly reduce this negative in the

coming few years.

So How to Decide if The Cloud is

the Right Way to Go?

The first premise one must accept is that at

some time in the not so distant future, all

documents and IP will reside in the cloud. We

can’t predict how soon, but like the

replacement of landlines with cell phones, the

impending cost savings and viability of cloud-

based storage will make the use of local storage

antiquated.

The second premise one must accept is the

world of mobile access is here to stay and is

clearly better supported by organizations

focused on providing content to these devices,

not by corporations producing widgets or

providing professional services.

So the train is coming and if you’re not already

on it you need to be prepared to jump on.

There are, however, some transitional steps

companies can take, including:

Employing a hybrid solution of in-

network and cloud document

management

Use of multiple servers on a WAN

providing file transfers, as needed, to

users

Co-locating servers in hosting facilities

supplying high-speed Internet

connections.

Employing a hybrid solution of in-network and

cloud document management: Much of what

is kept on corporate servers is not highly

valuable IP and some documents really do need

to be distributed to third parties, including

vendors, contractors, and customers. A hybrid

cloud approach maintains important, valuable

files on internal corporate servers and permits

other files to be stored and accessible in the

cloud. This hybrid solution gains the basic

advantages of cloud document management

while helping to address some of the concerns

about cloud storage. A key requirement,

however, of a hybrid arrangement is to ensure

documents and folders are synched, so users

are always accessing the most current versions

of documents; locally or from the cloud.

Use of multiple servers on a WAN providing

file transfers, as needed, to users: A quasi-

cloud environment can be simulated by using

multiple servers on a Wide Area Network

(WAN), whereby one, or several, of the servers

acts as a file server, transferring large files to

users as they need them. So files are still being

maintained entirely by the corporation, on

corporate owned assets, but files are

Can’t we use one of the name cloud storage providers like Dropbox?

These solutions are terrific for personal or non-corporate

documents but they lack the security features and versioning

capabilities corporations need to manage their organization’s

files.

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distributed, allowing access from anywhere in

the company, similar to the situation delivered

by a cloud-based eco-system.

Co-locating servers in hosting facilities

supplying high-speed Internet connections: By

locating corporate managed servers within third

party hosting facilities companies can start to

make the move to the cloud while still

maintaining full control over all IP and other

documents. Users connect to servers over high-

speed networks simulating internal networks.

This configuration allows organizations easier

transition to a cloud environment but still relies

on heavy IT management and does not take full

advantage of what the cloud has to offer.

Summary

The decision to move the corporation’s

document management application to the

cloud is not a straight-forward decision for

many organizations due to a number of

factors, including:

Continued use of legacy systems

demanding IT oversight and

maintenance

Hesitancy on behalf of senior

management to allow highly valuable

and mission critical documents outside

the corporate network

Insufficient Internet bandwidth to

provide adequate access to needed

files, especially large files

Cost and time needed to relocate files

to the cloud.

As was the case in the early 2000’s with CRM

datasets, the viability, cost savings, and

productivity elevation of cloud-based

applications will eventually be seen to far

exceed the disadvantages. Benefits include:

Security and access beyond that which

corporate IT infrastructure currently

provides

Increased collaboration and document

sharing between groups, locations,

vendors, customers, and other entities

that is not currently available

The ability to scale and accommodate

growing data needs more rapidly and

at less total cost

Overall improvements in corporate

productivity due to the quicker access

to more and important documents

needed in the decision making process

Reductions in the staff requirements

for IT departments; allowing focus on

mission critical functions applicable to

the company and output performance.

eQuorum is an engineering document management software provider offering

cloud, on-premise, and hybrid solutions for companies with a large number of

files, files types, or locations. It’s solutions have been utilized over the last 15

years by some of the country’s best known manufacturing, engineering services,

and utilities companies, as well as major universities and government agencies.