Cape Town, Western Cape, 20 Jan 2014
bSOLVe. Software + Services = Productivity.
We've all heard lately how migrating a business system, application or solution to the cloud is going to make our lives so much easier and save us money, but is this in fact the case?
Software vendors are in the process of reinventing themselves and their business models, with it essentially coming down to the fact that cloud services are currently the most efficient way for vendors to deliver and manage software for their clients, says Simon Hepburn, director of bSOLVe.
In principle, cloud might already make sense to you, but let's explore some practical considerations that need to be taken into account if you're not sure whether you should be moving to SharePoint in the cloud.
Access - One of the drivers of utilising a cloud version of SharePoint is to improve access both across and outside of your organisation, and also onto mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Although improving access outside of your organisation using SharePoint Online could be fairly clear cut (due to the absence of legacy infrastructure restrictions), you need to bear in mind that your access across/within the business may suffer if you do not consider some of the points below.
Adoption - If your existing SharePoint deployment is struggling or stalled, do not assume that upgrading to SharePoint Online will fix it. Consider whether the drive to go forward resides just in the IT department or is more of a business project. Endeavour to rekindle progress before moving on to the new version. Also investigate the new features and functionality of SharePoint Online and take as objective a view as possible. Consider calling in external help: this may be in the form of external consultants, external training or third-party add-on suppliers.
Bandwidth - One of the most critical challenges for South African organisations is whether your organisation can provide enough quality Internet bandwidth to ensure users can access information at an acceptable speed. Being a productivity platform, this is the Achilles' heel of SharePoint Online. Ignoring this will create widespread frustration and poor user adoption. I suggest carrying out proper testing to ensure sufficient access speeds, and thereafter investing in either more bandwidth or hardware acceleration devices (or both), if necessary.
Change management and governance - Don't be under any illusion that change management and governance efforts and costs will be reduced by moving to SharePoint Online. If anything, in order to make a success of SharePoint, this will increase, mainly do to a more rapidly changing environment.
Customisation - If your organisation has spent a fair amount of time and money customising SharePoint, you will probably think of SharePoint Online as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you might feel you'll be limited in direct comparison to what you are used to being able to do with SharePoint, however, this can also be a blessing in disguise. I personally think a world where we plug into a standardised platform like SharePoint Online by building apps or online services makes a lot of sense for most organisations. Customisation often gets organisations into trouble, resulting in more complexity and additional costs, while not always delivering additional value as intended. Should the customisation limitations of SharePoint Online be a major concern for your organisation, you may want to go the route of a private cloud or hybrid environment.
Deployment - Using SharePoint Online can lower deployment complexity due to it being based on a standardised service; however, it should be noted that it may also cost you more to develop the solution due to this very fact. Although I don't foresee immediate cost savings for solutions, I do think over time the cloud will deliver higher levels of value with less time and money spent on "keeping the lights on", so essentially, you may end up spending the same, but getting more.
Infrastructure - SharePoint Online can help limit infrastructure sprawl and complexity, which has become commonplace due to increased pressure on IT departments to deliver necessary solutions in limited time-frames. Flexible management options also ensure that you still retain the control you need to meet the compliance requirements of your business.
Integration - "Out of the box" integration to other cloud services like Exchange, Lync, Yammer and others can lower both cost and complexity but also opens up the opportunity to more easily share information in a unified cloud ecosystem. On the other hand, integration with other enterprise systems and third-party add-ons may be disrupted by a move to the cloud. In our new digital world, this level of integration is no longer a nice to have, but a necessity in order to know and engage people both internally and externally to your organisation.
Legacy - Although cloud offers the ability to utilise the latest release of software, the effect on legacy applications needs to be considered. For many large organisations, the cost and complexity of updating legacy applications could weigh heavily on a decision to utilise cloud services in the near future.
Security - Strangely, I find many organisations are concerned about the security related to their cloud services. In response to this, I would simply say that Microsoft is an industry leader in cloud security and implements policies and controls on par with, or better than, on-premise data centres of even the most sophisticated organisations. Also, as most security experts would confirm, the major weakness regarding security usually relates to people themselves and not the systems they use.
Service provider - In order to navigate your way through the new and different opportunities of cloud services, you need a service provider who understands cloud and the relevant solutions to be able to guide you correctly. Cloud requires a different type of thinking, and your service provider should embrace the opportunity it presents, while being aware of the resultant pitfalls.
Size - The size of an organisation is an important factor to consider, since smaller organisations generally find it easier to get everyone onboard (so to speak). Enterprises will, however, in most cases, have to adopt a staggered approach to moving to the cloud.
Skills - If, like many organisations, you are struggling to maintain the skills needed or justify the additional resource cost to support SharePoint, moving to the cloud can solve your problems. SharePoint Online will deliver the powerful features of SharePoint without the associated overhead of managing the infrastructure on your own.
Upgrades - A painful factor affecting SharePoint clients - and specifically those with customised on-premise environments - over the years, has been upgrades. I see the correct use of cloud potentially reducing this pain through standardisation. It should, however, be noted that upgrades in the cloud will be, to an extent, unavoidable, unlike the user-planned, on-premise upgrades. Each upgrade also brings more sophisticated services, such that external advice and training are even more important for these later versions than they were for the earlier ones.
If most of the above remains a challenge, or you have recently invested heavily into your on-premise environment, do not despair; you have the option of a hybrid environment, which would allow you to have both on-premise and cloud SharePoint. You could, therefore, take a staggered approach over time, as it makes sense to migrate from your on-premise environment to the cloud.
For most organisations, the above points seem to be a challenge and the indication is that we will see organisations delaying their immediate full-scale move to the cloud, instead opting for the safer middle ground of a hybrid SharePoint environment for now.
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