POB in the Cloud
februar 23, 2011
POB – Point Of Business has always been delivered in a thoroughly modern technology. Already four years ago KMD in Denmark could offer POB as a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. This Web based solution is today used by many small/ medium companies in Denmark.
POB in The Cloud is an On Demand IT Service Management solution, modern in its delivery, price and value adding functionality. The POB Cloud solution provides resources, software, and data on demand, “as with an electricity grid”. The POB Cloud solution is a natural evolution of the mature POB ITIL V.3 (14 processes) certified solution, helping customers to reduce initial investments and infrastructure costs. Upgrades are automatic, at no cost, keeping the whole solution always up to date.
The POB Cloud solution is an affordable and predictable solution based on subscription licensing. You rent the solution on monthly or yearly basis, with all HW and SW costs included, and based on an extremely efficient implementation process.
The POB Cloud solution is based on the latest Microsoft technologies, making the integration to the MS suite of products and other solutions totally seamless.
The key characteristics of cloud computing is that the computing is "in the cloud" i.e. the processing (and the related data) is not in a specified, known or static place. This is in contrast to a model in which the processing takes place in one or more specific servers that are known. All the other concepts mentioned are supplementary or complementary to this concept.
Cloud computing users avoid capital expenditure on hardware, software, and services as they pay a provider only for what they use. Consumption is usually billed on a subscription (like subscribing a newspaper) basis with little or no upfront cost. Other benefits of this approach are low barriers to entry, shared infrastructure and costs, low management overhead, and immediate access to a broad range of functionality. In general, users can terminate the contract at any time (thereby avoiding return on investment risks and uncertainty), and the services are often covered by service level agreements (SLAs). The disadvantage compared with a perpetual licensed solution is that when you stop to pay, the service immediately stops. A normal perpetual license continues eternally.
Although companies might be able to save on upfront capital expenditures, they might not save much and might actually pay more for operating expenses. In situations where the capital expense would be relatively small, or where the organization has more flexibility in their capital budget than their operating budget, the cloud model might not make great economic sense. Other factors having an impact on the scale of potential cost savings include the efficiency of a company's data center, the company's existing operating costs, and the type of functionality being hosted in the cloud. Additionally, companies can usually depreciate equipment, such as computers, where services cannot be written off in the same fashion.