One of the most popular trends today in business is moving from on-premise and maintaining business applications on internal servers to cloud based applications. There are several reasons for this trend but two of the most common are reductions in internal costs, particularly IT costs, as well as a reduced IT role in getting new solutions implemented. It is a win-win for the business and IT sides of the enterprise. When considering cloud-hosted solutions, remember that there are crucial differences in application delivery in a cloud environment.
Public clouds (multi-tenant) vs. Private Clouds (single-tenant)
One of the considerations when selecting a cloud delivery model is whether your application is housed in a public cloud or a private cloud. With most any application you can have that solution offered up in either configuration, the question is what does the application require? The level of security sensitivity or customization required for your specific business or process will significantly influence your decision. For example, it makes sense that a CRM application uses a public cloud environment due to the number of users across different organizations. On the other hand some financial applications or other applications that require a higher level of security and/or customization to reflect your specific business and process may work better in a private cloud, in a single-tenant configuration.
Of course, two factors that will weigh heavily on the decision are performance and cost. Multi-tenant cloud-hosted applications often cost less due to shared infrastructure costs across multiple users. However, this limits your ability to drive greater performance. While a single-tenant cloud hosted solution may be more expensive, you have more control over the performance. Additionally, you have the ability ability to add more “horsepower” if the application calls for it, and customize the application to fit your specific business processes.
The Hybrid Approach
Let’s introduce another layer to consider when looking at cloud hosted delivery. You can enjoy the benefits of a private cloud at lower price points with a hybrid approach. Although your application won’t have exclusive server access like in a private cloud, it will operate within isolated clusters on shared servers. This ensures your data remains private while still benefiting from cost-sharing with other applications.
ICG’s Solution
ICG can help you understand which model will work best for your business processes. ICG offers its back-office solutions in a variety of single-tenant and hybrid cloud-hosted solutions. Solutions such as Vendor Onboarding, Supplier Onboarding, Vendor Portal, Supplier Portal, Accounts Payable Automation, Workflow, Data Capture and much more. Contact ICG today for more information or to schedule a demonstration for your team.