Every business owner and journalist I know is talking about the advantages of cloud computing. But what is it, what is the impact on business and what are the monetary and tangible upsides?

Cloud means Internet. The computing occurs on the Internet – instead of the software you use being installed on your desktop pc, it’s hosted on the Internet on a server located in a data centre usually staffed by people who are adept in managing technology. This type of “cloud” software is often referred to as “on demand” or Software as a Service (SaaS).

Some well known examples of well established Software as a Service are:

Web based CRM Software (Customer Relationship Management) – Salesforce.com pricing approximately $9 per user/month.
Small business management and accounting software (small business ERP) – Salesorder.com pricing $45 per user/month.
Medium sized business ERP software – NetSuite pricing about $99 per user/month.

There are a number of key benefits for every business here:

Time, cost savings and reliability

Businesses no longer need a permanent information technology professional to help them procure, bed in and look after the systems platform thus cutting operating expenses and time to get operational. The effort of constantly backing up information is removed as this is almost always an inherent function of the “cloud” software. Cloud software “operators” almost always have stand by systems that can be deployed in minutes should a major error occur.

Easier selection and wider choice

Through the ubiquitous web browser, businesses now have instant access to a massive choice of software packages they can in most cases immediately test and rapidly assess if the software fulfils their needs at zero cost. This makes it effective for people in large businesses to by pass the standard information technology buying processes and easily assess and prove their business proposal.

Better user experience

The cloud provides instant feedback to application architects and has led to amazing progress in user interface design resulting in more intuitive systems thus improving learning times and improving user satisfaction. This of course means faster adoption and higher productivity.