One of the most popular trends in business today is moving from on-premise and maintaining business applications on internal servers to cloud-based applications. Two common reasons for this are reductions in internal costs and a reduced IT role in new solution implementation. When considering cloud-hosted solutions, remember that there are crucial differences in application delivery in a cloud environment. Your organization should also weigh the pros and cons of any new solution presented.
Cloud-based solutions are very popular and becoming even more so every day. Estimates are that companies will continue to drive double-digit growth when adopting cloud-based solutions well into the future. The benefits of cloud-based solutions, both financial and operational, are well documented and fairly well established at this point. Solutions like vendor portals, vendor onboarding, accounts payable automation, dynamic discounting, workflow management, data capture, and many other applications utilize the cloud to deliver functionality.
What is not yet common knowledge among users and buyers of cloud-based solutions is the different types of cloud infrastructures and implementations that could impact the availability, performance, and security of your application and data.
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 or private cloud. The level of security sensitivity or customization required for your specific business or process will significantly influence your decision. For example, CRM applications use 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 can add more “horsepower” and customize the application to fit your specific business processes.
Multi-Tenant
In a multi-tenant, public cloud-based solution, applications are designed for use by multiple users from different companies. While each company’s data remains private, multiple users share the application functionality. The benefit of this approach is the price. Multi-tenant solutions are less expensive for the application provider and users since each user shares the same base application. The downside for many is that multi-tenancy limits functionality and users must either redesign their process to fit the application or pay for expensive and risky customizations.
Single-Tenant
Single-tenancy can provide some of the benefits of a private and public cloud. The cloud service provider maintains the infrastructure, while the solution provider maintains the application. Multiple applications may still be housed on shared servers but the individual applications are not shared among multiple companies. The benefit of single-tenancy is the ability to customize your application to fit your process quickly and inexpensively while still taking advantage of the cost benefits of cloud solutions.
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.
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In conclusion, cloud-hosted solutions have revolutionized the way businesses operate, offering a scalable, cost-effective, and flexible approach to software delivery. By leveraging the power of cloud computing, organizations can streamline their operations, enhance collaboration, and improve overall efficiency. As cloud technology continues to evolve, it is essential for businesses to embrace cloud-hosted solutions to stay competitive in the digital age.