General Consultant Discussion

Per @WayneSchulz link : http://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2013/02/01/roundup-of-cloud-computing-enterprise-software-market-estimates-and-forecasts-2013/

I think there's a lot of room for interpretation here. Define ""running their ERP systems in the cloud"". Does Citrix/TS count? I think it does. If so probably 25% of mine do that. Maybe more. Does this question mean that the customer must use a full multi-tenant solution and move away from Sage? If so then I vote 0-2.5%. ERP companies play fast and loose with this definition and I submit it is a lot harder to pin down than it appears because we all have different definitions of ""in the cloud"". Probably 100% of my customers have online banking setup. Are they in the cloud? Some might say so. I guess the question is whether cloud based computing is an all or nothing definition. My impression is that for the next 5 years it won't be. The next big movement for our customers (Sage) will be when Sage sees a way to make cloud based ERP work to Sage's advantage. At that point they will migrate existing customers to the cloud (much like they did with credit cards).

For this poll, I interpret ""cloud"" as not on-premise.

I have one customer who is actively running their ERP on a hosted cloud solution. I have 4 others semi seriously looking at doing it that way.

@MarkKotyla Does cloud imply everything is not on premises? Does it count if updates are delivered by cloud? I have the impression that quite a few software companies count their solution as cloud if it in some part has cloud contact. Sage may actually have this claim with Sage 100 ERP 2013 where all CC has to be cloud, Advisor delivers cloud updates, etc.

@WayneSchulz When I dumb it down for customers, cloud implies that the basic ERP software is not on-premise. Having ""cloud"" based add-on's or components does not make the ERP software ""cloud."" MAS is on-premise, but it can be implemented to run ""in the cloud""... which simply means it's hosted, regardless of whether it runs on clients hardware or not. As regards to vendors claiming their products are cloud because a few components take advantage of that technology: You can put a Mercedes hood ornament on a Honda and call it a Benz, but it doesn't make it so.

We are in agreement. I think vendors are stretching the definition of cloud to fit their needs and what you and I would consider cloud is not the same as the vendor definition. I remember maybe two years ago Intuit reported some huge percent of their users were cloud based. There's little chance that number could be accurate unless they counted the ability of a user to obtain an update via the Internet.

Or make it even simpler. If the software is running on a server that is physically located in your building then it is on-premises. If it's not then it's in the cloud. For the record, the term is on-premises. http://ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=premises&submit.x=37&submit.y=24

Got it. Thanks for the correction @JohnShaver!