Yes, a CLOUD Environment Works.... And Yes, an On-PREMISE Environment Works.... "TOP 3 THINGS TO MAKE YOU GO Hmmmm"
Jessica Voss
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Jessica Voss
Customer Support GURU ? Podcast ? SPEAKER ? Stop Firefighting and Start Reducing Customer Escalations ? 75% of YOUR Revenue comes from Existing Customers ? A.I. Predictive & Proactive Analytics ? And More!
I must get this question from people around the world at least once a day! Don't quote me, but that's what it feels like. Let me break it down to you why BOTH environments can be good for your company.
LET'S ENTER THE REALM OF REALITY................with the Questions I get:
DISCLAIMER: "CLOUD GUYS" = Any Cloud Solution, "ON-PREMISE GUYS" = Any On-Premise Solution. For those of you who are ridiculously Politically Correct in any Words/Grammar I use,.....this disclaimer is for you. I don't literally mean GUYS (men) and disregarding "women"... I am a WOMAN! :)
Anyhoo (yes this is spelled correct and I did mean Any... Hoo) Let's get back to the knowledge transfer. Here are my TOP 3 THINGS TO MAKE YOU GO HMMMM...
1. Let's first debunk the back and forth saying that one platform "TYPE OF INFRASTRUCTURE" is MORE stable than the other: ON-PREMISE vs. CLOUD.
First of all, It is not the TYPE of infrastructure that makes it more stable than the other. There are plenty of CLOUD GUYS who are more stable than some ON-PREMISE GUYS. And there are some ON-PREMISE GUYS more stable than some CLOUD GUYS. So when you are evaluating both TYPES of platforms, please have your team remove the stipulations that one TYPE is better than the other. You must evaluate the actual SOLUTION PROVIDER VS. THE OTHER SOLUTION PROVIDER to see which is more "BETTER" for you! CHECK!
2. SECOND, There will always be some type of DOWNTIME with ANY INFRASTRUCTURE YOU CHOOSE. Even if it's just a minute/year. Physical Hardware fails... and NO, cloud is not some magic invisible infrastructure sitting in the ethers... it is STILL Hardware.
If we can get it out of our mind when evaluating new technology that you want a solution that will NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER.....EVER go down, you might not get crazy when it actually does go down. Even with all the routes of redundancy possible (with a fat wallet at hand), there is always that possibility.
So make sure you ALWAYS ask in your evaluation process what is the provider's downtime and ALWAYS understand the other providers that could affect that solutions downtime. For example, if you are purchasing software that RELIES on your broadband or MPLS provider.. make sure to know that the software WON'T work if those other providers go down or have glitches. Seems logical right.. why would I even have to type that. Well, sometimes we forget things go down.
I mean, I have to take my car in every month for some type of service, and believe me that is so FRUSTRATING. But once I removed the imagery in my head that my car is perfect and will never need to service to: Okay, cars WILL always have sometime of service done to them and I might be without my car for a small fraction of my time, so I'm going to do the best I can do to ensure i have the RIGHT BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND DISASTER RECOVERY PLAN IN PLACE!
AND if a SALESREP says they NEVER have downtime on any piece of their solution, please excuse them from the eval process... because that is a BIG FAT LIE! CHECK!
3. Lastly, YOU MUST, MUST do a TCO AND ROI... Let me repeat you must do a TCO & ROI when evaluating these types of infrastructures and solutions providers. You need to know the TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP for that solution EVERY year until year 10, some larger corporations may even need to do a 20 year TCO depending on hardware depreciation. How much is this solution going to COST you every year, even including hardware refreshes... please go back to Point #2,..... HARDWARE fails so it must be replaced usually every 3-5 years.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT is just as important. You need to know and understand the soft dollar savings along with the hard dollar savings. VERY IMPORTANT. Many companies don't factor in Efficiency Soft Dollar Savings! Which Can be HUGEEEEEE!
AND Don't just do a TCO or just an ROI... DO BOTH! BE involved with the TCO and ROI studies to validate the numbers. Don't rely on the solution providers to just hand you over one... it will either be generic CLOUD VS. ON-PREMISE and/or BIASED. Every organization is DIFFERENT, like our own fingerprints... NOT ONE COMPANY IS EXACTLY THE SAME. I would suggest doing the studies WITH the providers to make sure it makes sense... CHECK!
