Flexible and cost-effective option for Small and Medium Size Businesses.
What is Cloud ERP Software?
Cloud-based computing (“the Cloud”) is one of the leading technology topics in the world.
Cloud computing,sometimes called on-demand computing, uses the Internet to provide shared computing resources and storage of records or
documents. The term covers everything from emailing or photo sharing on a commercial service like Google to hosting the entire computing
infrastructure of a global corporation from remote data centers.
The Benefits of Cloud Computing
Functionality Licensing with the Acumatica standard suites and optional add-on features
Computing power and data storage size needed now and when your business changes
Deployment options ranging from SaaS, hosted in a private cloud or on-premise, which can be changed as needed
Licensing models of annual subscription or perpetual license
Data access to your data at any time, unlike many closed systems
Device mobility to easily switch between desired mobile device such as an Apple iPad, iPhone and Google Android or use a Windows, Mac or Linux desktop computer.
All the flexibility above, plus the safety and security of a hosting provider such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure public clouds.
Licensing options: Purchase or Subscription
Perpetual or Purchase: These terms refer to when a company BUYS a software license. The company pays to own the license and also pays an annual maintenance fee for upgrades.
Subscription: The company pays an annual or monthly charge to use the software license. Upgrades to the software is usually included in the subscription price.
Deployment options: On-premise, Hosted, or SaaS
On-premise or in-house: The company is responsible for the infrastructure (hardware, system software, communication hardware, software on user devices, etc.) and the deployment of the application software (implementation, support, upgrading, etc.)
Hosted: The company or hoster buys a license for the software. The hoster manages all, or most, of the infrastructure and software deployment as described above. The hoster can be an independent company or a division of the company itself. Hosting is a way to outsource IT operations.
Software as a Service (SaaS): This newest method of deployment is a combined software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and hosted by the software provider, all for a single price that is typically a fixed amount. In many cases the software provider uses a Public Cloud for the hosting.
Private Cloud and Public Cloud
Private cloud is privately owned and maintained by the company or a hoster. Based on business requirements or regulations, sometimes this may be the only option.
Public cloud is owned by a service company, such as Microsoft, IBM or Amazon. The service provides all the hardware, load balancing, backup and security.
Hybrid cloud is a blended approach with a mix of on-premises, private cloud and third-party, public cloud services.
Multi-tenancy
Multi-tenancy is where the Cloud software provider has single instance (version) of software on a server and serves multiple tenants (customers) simultaneously.
Single-tenancy is where each customer has their own application and data base.
Cost Savings
It is believed that multi-tenancy reduces the cost for the software provider, which is absolutely true for cloud apps that are quickly purchased and downloaded like Pandora, Facebook, etc.
For Cloud ERP, the cost savings is insignificant compared to: providing the server hardware, operating system and database; development of the very sophisticated ERP programs; sales and marketing required; as well as on-going support.
Thin client & Web services
Thin client in cloud terms is a device (PC, tablet or phone) that requires NO application or communication software to be downloaded. Any thin client can access the application from anywhere, similar to a web page.
Web services are simply application components. They are designed for and used on the Web. Common examples are the widgets on a phone, such a weather. Business applications may include zip code look up, sales tax calculation or much more sophisticated applications
