Perhaps you're thinking of moving some of your business processes to The Cloud. There's certainly no shortage of IT companies who would be happy to provide whatever cloud services you might want.
In addition to the usual due diligence about contract terms, cost analysis and so forth, there is one easy test that can quickly scuttle a bad "move it to the cloud" scheme before you've wasted your money and time analyzing it in detail.
"The Cloud" is really just a marketer's way of saying "Someone else's computers". You probably don't know exactly who that someone is or under whose laws they operate. So, simply substitute this phrase and see if it still sounds like a good idea.
Like this:
- We should run our customer database on the cloud.
- We should run our customer database on someone else's computers.
Or this:
- We can cut back on in-house IT if we move the ERP and finance systems to the cloud.
- We can cut back on in-house IT if we move the ERP and finance systems to someone else's computers.
If it still sounds like a good idea after switching the wording, then by all means, investigate further. But if calling a spade a spade makes the idea look somewhat less appealing, then perhaps you've found something that is best kept under your own control.
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