Five things to note for small and medium enterprises when considering cloud services

My friend http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/16434.html ">chris Chesley identified 5 things the enterprise should consider for its IT equipment before entering the virtual world. From him I get a hint that there are "5 things that small and medium enterprises should consider before they turn to the cloud".

    1. What do I have now for my service? Let's face it, small and medium businesses don't invest in technology, they just go home and brag about their neighbors. There has to be real value to change what is working today. Look at how your users are consuming technology when performing tasks. Does it work? High efficiency? Can you activate or interfere? Is there a lack of capacity to improve communication or workflow?

    only small and medium enterprises can answer these questions. As a consultant, we can guide and advise, but in the end, only small and medium enterprises believe the value of change and they will adopt our proposal.

    2. What risks do I take? Cloud services are not new technologies, but they may present some potential risks that are not in the current environment of small and medium enterprises. In some ways, these risks are similar to the risks that a small and medium-sized enterprise needs to face in a commitment to a new model that guides the enterprise.

    will you buy a new forklift or a security system from some guy you meet on the street? So consider the problem in this way. Take a closer look at suppliers and evaluate their business model, financial position, core customers, service commitments, and more. Just as you are about to sign a multi-year telecoms agreement or invest in a new application, consider it in the long run.

    Moving Primary services to external vendors is not a short-term solution. And those who can win your trust and have already demonstrated themselves in the market.
 
    3. How will this affect my users? Small and medium enterprises tend to take care of the employees who help them build their business. So simply from a human point of view, moving to cloud services will bring them direct benefits.

    can they accomplish tasks faster without always having to tinker? Can they work more flexibly at home? Can you reduce your headaches on the way to work? Will this balance their lives and jobs? I don't want to be overly enthusiastic here and you still need to make the right decisions about your business. However, if you can improve your users with an adjustable baseInfrastructure that will help you keep your employees and even recruit new people.
 
    4. Is this action good for my clients? If moving some or all of your systems to cloud services will improve your ability to deliver services, the answer is obvious. In the past, such considerations may have been limited to the individual applications of certain vertical markets, such as retailing, but I bet that the number of clients benefiting from external services has increased dramatically over the past five years.

    Financial Services, marketing, professional services, and manufacturing now allow their customers to enjoy ways like Amazon and ebay. Alliances, or the ability to share access to common data and services among split entities, are key performance in many cloud products.
 
    5. How to pay for technology? This may be the most important of the five questions. The top four can be implemented either in traditional it or in cloud computing methods, although the ease of delivery and management may vary.

    Does the financial model of an enterprise map to capital expenditure and asset ownership? Will companies benefit from a more operational spending model? Where does the money come from? Allow one-time upfront investment? Will the cost be consumed over time? Do you have to indicate the depreciation of your investment?

    Answer these five questions to eliminate all doubts about direction choices?

    not. But it can help determine if it's really appropriate to move to a cloud service.
 

(editor: Heritage)