NextGen enterprise – all cloud all the time
PrudentCloud
By Subraya Mallya on 29 December 2010
Cloud Computing has created enough of a challenge for companies. On the one hand, they have investments made into traditional on-premise technologies which has developed firm roots in the enterprise, thanks to all the customization, resources etc. On the other hand they see these new Cloud solutions, all of which they wished their existing vendors were – agile, no CAPEX, low support costs, equitable risk share and much more customer focussed.
But if you were starting a company today, you have no baggage of the old IT investments or legacy maintenance. With almost every possible solution available as a cl0ud based service, you can easily to evaluate, procure and use Cloud based solutions, what would a next generation enterprise look like. What are some of the off-premise technology choices to effectively run a company. Here are my suggestions
Financial Capital Management
- NetSuite, Intacct
Human Capital Management
- SuccessFactors, Taleo, Workday
Sales Automation
- Salesforce.com, Oracle Siebel On-Demand
Customer Service
- RightNow, ZenDesk, GetSatisfaction
Sales Compensation
- Xactly, Varicent
Marketing Automation
- Marketo, Hubspot
Community Engagement
- Lithium, Jive
Document Management
- Dropbox, Box.net
Collaboration
- Google Apps, Jive, Atlassian Confluence
Business Productivity Suites
- Google Apps, Microsoft Office Live, Zoho Apps
Content Management
- Alfresco, Box.net
Web Conferencing
- Cisco WebEx, Citrix GoToMeeting
Project Management/Work Management
- Clarizen, Atlassian
Purchasing/Spend Management
- Concur, Coupa
Custom Application Platforms
- Salesforce.com Force.com, Microsoft Azure (for .NET), Google AppEngine (for PHP, Python, Java), Engine Yard (Ruby on Rails)
Identity Management
- Ping Identity, Symplified
Payroll
- ADP, Intuit Paycycle, PayChex
Version Control (in case you still fancy building custom apps)
- GitHub, Codesion
Voicemail, Messaging, Fax
- Twillio, eFax
and finally, if you still wanted to hug servers then for application infrastructure, redundant backup, replication
- Amazon AWS
I could go on with all the other activities, but you get the idea.
Just like companies over time have given up building their own telecom network, power generator (I know I will get a lot of heat for this analogy !) it might not be far when we see a next generation enterprise just focus on its core competency and leverage all else from cloud.