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Cloud computing Vs. buying PCs and servers for 20-25 users?
I'm opening a new sales office with up to 25 users and little or no IT staff. Basic requirements, CRM, Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint). I'm wondering if thin clients with IaaS and SaaS would be the smart move vs. buying PCs and a server or 2. Also wondering if I need PaaS if we intend on building our own web based CRM?
Best Answer
- Recommended by:
- Brielle Nikaido,
- Robert Taylor,
- Michael De Angelis
Complex question. PCs are so incredibly cheap now that there is no real benefit from going with thin clients.
That said, and on to your second point, I'd absolutely recommend using SaaS apps rather than installed software. I'm not sure why you're considering building your own web CRM though, would need some more detail before commenting...
From a business and IT architecture standpoint, your president could actually be on to something. Before we completely dismiss his ideas or trying to change his mind, it may be a good idea to see exactly what he's thinking. I've designed deployments for simple solutions built by a local moonlighting developer that were simple, swift, and sweet. By the time you calculate professional services costs, mandatory upgrades, and ongoing support costs, sometimes a simple home-brew can put you far ahead of the game. Further, if it's designed to be able to eventually export data to a larger system and/or scale, you'll be getting the best of both worlds. Many enterprise shops build solutions in-house for the same reasons.
John, you bring up some refreshing points that I haven't considered, which is exactly why I'm excited to have you on the upcoming amazon roundtable. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
- Recommended by:
- Andrew Baker,
- Michael De Angelis
Michael,
Just remember, anything you put in the cloud means that access can only be achieved through a network. Hence, it's not enough to think about what you're running and where you're running it, but also what infrastructure you will put in place to ensure good performance in accessing it. 20-25 people accessing all your applications over a WAN will require good optimization and QoS controls out of the branch office. If this is not your forte then take that into consideration when making your decision or you might end up with frustrated users.
- Recommended by:
- Michael De Angelis
HI Michael,
If you will be taking on the bulk of IT operations for this deployment you may want to consider outsourcing it to a managed cloud. Not to be mistaken by a public cloud the key differentiator being a provider who can handle all the traditional IT operations and at the same time keep you on the latest greatest hardware avoiding the cost, location, power, security and disaster recovery.
With the pricing model looking at having a few servers, a backup schema and license fees it would be more cost effective under a SPLA model renting the CALs on a per user basis.
For your web based CRM depending on what products you are looking for internal with microsoft crm/dynamics or salesforce model would be make a great fit.
applications such as office can/should be accessible by all through thin clients with sharepoint if needed, document sharing, revision changing, and browser access for crm suite.
if you need some recommendations on managed hosting models i can make a few suggestions if you need.
It could be very expensive to deploy your own internal CRM solution and in terms of turnover this could take months to deploy as well as excessive costs and outside developer work may be needed. I'd recommend a term based solution if your looking at the managed hosting, managed cloud route as this may also provide capability and commitment through a contract and SLA agreement. Uptime, performance, security will be crucial.
Since remote thin client provisioning may be the direction this could go any downtime would result in company wide work stoppage and meeting the requirements would be mostly responsibility of the host.
In terms of connectivity JP made a great suggestion and answer when it comes to the connectivity pipeline. redundancy of your wan link will be just as important since the client machines need full access to wherever the servers are located and even if all is up and running at the datacenter facility it is equally important on site to be able to have a backup link to guarantee things are always up and running. Such a solution can usually be reached through your telco provider in having a business cable line for backup in the event your primary circuit is down.
It could be very expensive to deploy your own internal CRM solution and in terms of turnover this could take months to deploy as well as excessive costs and outside developer work may be needed. I'd recommend a term based solution if your looking at the managed hosting, managed cloud route as this may also provide capability and commitment through a contract and SLA agreement. Uptime, performance, security will be crucial.
Since remote thin client provisioning may be the direction this could go any downtime would result in company wide work stoppage and meeting the requirements would be mostly responsibility of the host.
In terms of connectivity JP made a great suggestion and answer when it comes to the connectivity pipeline. redundancy of your wan link will be just as important since the client machines need full access to wherever the servers are located and even if all is up and running at the datacenter facility it is equally important on site to be able to have a backup link to guarantee things are always up and running. Such a solution can usually be reached through your telco provider in having a business cable line for backup in the event your primary circuit is down.
- Recommended by:
- Michael De Angelis
Michael,
Is this for an independent sales office, or will this office need to connect back to a larger organizational network?
As several have already noted, you're not going to get out of buying PCs that easily. Servers, on the other hand, might not need to be purchased. Please consider what JP has indicated, however. With a hosted focus for your applications, bandwidth and connectivity are going to be key, and it will be more than just adding circuits across multiple providers.
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I would look at a hybrid approach. As Ben said, PCs are so cheap that I wouldn't bother with thin clients.
For the application layer, consider moving most of that to the cloud. Solutions such as Office 365 and Google Apps will cover your collaboration / email requirements without the need for an on-site Exchange server.
CRM should definitely be SaaS. Look at the current SaaS offerings and consider customizing instead of building your own.
Let someone else to the hard work, while you focus on your key business processes.
20 to 25 people may put some stress on your Internet connectivity. Thankfully, that's becoming inexpensive enough that adding redundant/load balanced connections is simple and cost effective.