Can cloud computing really save costs?

A study shows that if your company wants to save money by using cloud computing, don't forget to consider long-term gains.

&http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/37954.html >nbsp;   The trend is not surprising as more companies opt to use cloud computing or software-as-service (SaaS) solutions.

    The initial cost of cloud computing is low, and many financial and it operators themselves do not have the ability to create analytical solutions, and many of the work from business management to hedging accounting requires strong computing power. So SaaS undoubtedly has a great attraction for them.

    The speed with which companies migrate to cloud computing platforms is actually accelerating, according to a survey by the Gartner Institute, nearly one-third of respondents said they had or planned to use SaaS services to enhance their analysis of their core business data.

    But before the CFO chooses to use these services, it's a good idea to carefully calculate the possible costs.

    users generally consider SaaS products to be cost-effective, but the reality is more complex. Gartner's cost model shows that SaaS had a price advantage in the first 5 years, but then things changed. The long-term benefits are in other ways-including cash flow and reduced IT support costs.

    "Business users are often distressed by the deployment cycles, costs, complex upgrades, and the IT infrastructure needed for local software business Intelligence (BI) solutions," says James Richardson, a Gartner researcher. "SaaS and Cloud based bi are often considered to provide faster, cheaper, and easier to deploy, even though this is a fact that remains to be seen."

    Nonetheless, SaaS can accelerate deployment and bring benefits quickly, especially in some areas where it is constrained by budget to meet the information and analysis needs required for business operations, and the advantages of SaaS are more pronounced.

    It is clear that while the market's interest in cloud computing and SaaS Business Intelligence is increasing, the nature and impact of them is unclear. "Richardson said.

    surveyed respondentsIt was the 1364 IT managers and business users who used the business intelligence platform in the fourth quarter of 2011. Only 17% of respondents said they had or planned to replace some of the core business intelligence features with cloud computing or SaaS products, and 27% said they had or planned to use cloud computing or SaaS products to expand business intelligence applications in specific areas.
 

(editor: Heritage)