Recently, The Sleeter Group converted our desktop software to cloud-based hosted solutions. We’re doing this not just cause it’s cool, but because we believe it will reduce costs, improve performance, and enhance our security.
In our case, all of our software and hardware systems are aging and, like many businesses, we are facing the question of whether to replace or upgrade our servers, or to finally shoot them and move to the cloud. While it’s been nice to own equipment and “touch it” every day, it’s really starting to become obvious to me that continuing to invest in on-premise equipment will have diminishing returns. The reasons are many:
- On premise equipment needs babysitting. This is expensive. So the idea that you can “buy it once” doesn’t quite tell the whole story.
- Providing quality “offsite access” to your on-premise equipment is difficult and expensive. When you first look at it, it looks FREE, but like most things, free doesn’t usually mean free. We have several staff members who need to do some or all of their work remotely. When all of our systems are located inside an office, providing our offsite workers FAST internet access to these systems is often impossible. Although we can do it, it sure is expensive!
- Security of on-premise data is very hard to guarantee. In most small businesses there is almost no real security for your data. In a typical office there are many devices with USB connections (easy to quickly insert a thumb drive, copy data and slip out the door), open wireless access to the network (easy to sit just outside the door and jump onto the network), unattended screens when someone goes on break but forgets to lock or log out of the machine, and much more. All of these are serious risks to the security of your important business data.
Even though this isn’t anything new, many small businesses are still not aware of the costs and risks they take every day by using desktop software on local hardware.
Crossing the Chasm
In his book Crossing the Chasm
What are we doing? We are:
- Moving our accounting-related Windows applications off of our in-house Servers to a virtual server “in the cloud”.
- Moving our Microsoft Exchange Server to Office 365.
- Picking strategic places where we can use cloud-based “chunks” of our business process, such as Bill.com for managing accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash flow forecasting.
As we move forward with this transition we’ll let you know what works smoothly, and what the rough patches are. Many of our consultants have already moved many clients to hosted solutions, and nearly all of them experience a huge gain in client-
For a great article describing the good, bad and ugly of hosted desktop applications, see this recent post from Joanie Mann.
Moving to a Virtual Server
A great option for those who want to move to the Cloud but don’t want to change everything all at once is to get your desktop applications hosted by a reputable hosting company. This is the approach we are taking – a gradual transition rather than going “cold turkey” and changing everything in one big step. Since, like so many small businesses, we are still addicted to the desktop version of
So far, the transition has been nearly perfect. We were able to upload all of our data quickly, so that within hours we were live and running QuickBooks Enterprise, Microsoft Office, and all of our QuickBooks add-ons.
And the speed of the system exceeds the speed we were getting with our local hardware! What a pleasant surprise this has been. You would think it would slow things down to move to anything “cloudy,” but in this case, it actually improved our performance. Plus all the backups are now handled for us by the vendor, and keeping the hardware up and running is now their responsibility.
What about support? The support experience we found with this service is absolutely outstanding. They have been available by telephone, email, and online chat with very short turnaround times, and their support people are knowledgeable, courteous, and responsive.
Those who know me know that it’s really hard to get me to say such gushy things about any product or service, because I’m probably the toughest customer anyone can have. I’m picky, and I sweat the details. I like to think I’m nice about it always, but I do feel a responsibility to represent not only my particular needs, but also the interests and needs of other small businesses and accounting professionals. So when I do see something as cool as what Cloud9 Real Time can do for us, I like to shout about it.
If you’re trying to get to the cloud, but you’re afraid to change everything all at once, hosting your desktop systems is a compelling choice. Try Cloud 9 Real Time and tell them I sent you.
