The decision to switch to cloud based services is becoming easier and easier each year with improved bandwidth and improved performance and features with cloud based products. The question that will need to be asked is does it make sense for you to switch to cloud based services over hosting the service in house. Most companies do not want to be in the business of hardware and infrastructure unless this is of course an actual service they are offering, but for those companies that are not they want and need as little hardware and infrastructure as possible. Significant cost savings can be made by making the switch to cloud based services for these organizations. Companies are finding it much cheaper to switch to cloud based services over the tens of thousands of dollars you might have to spend on a server; office back-up system, desktop software and IT help (Ingthorsson, 2012). Companies are also finding that by switching to cloud based services that they are not only saving money by trying to keep servers running smoothly, keeping the software up to date and secure but that they are saving an incredible amount of time as well. Resources that would have traditionally been spending their time maintain servers can be reallocated to more important business functions. In an article written by Columbus (2013) Rackaspace commissioned a study with market research from Vansom …show more content…
Cloud providers are going to be able to charge you lower power costs due to the fact that many of the cloud based resources you are utilizing will be shared with another company which means less idle time on the appliances and leads to more efficient use of the device. Some of the easy costs to add up you save on people by switching to cloud is the fact you do not have to hire expensive talent to maintain servers and software, but some of the unrealized costs are the time HR spends recruiting this talent and time spent on training and interviews. Another area that costs savings can be focused on is the fact with utilizing cloud based services not only are there zero capital costs to deploy to the cloud, but you often times will have built in high availability. To some organizations this is mandatory where additional hardware will need to be acquired but with the cloud, this is all handled and maintained by the provider. The capital that is saved from not purchasing hardware, software, people and power costs can all go back into the organization to help it grow in more needed areas.
All of the advantages listed are things that can help save nearly every organization across the board money, but how does switching inventory management from in house to the cloud help the XYZ Manufacturing Company. There are various companies out there