"The Cloud...The Cloud"... talk about "The Cloud" is everywhere. Move your business operations to the cloud. There is no need to have local servers, everything can be done from the cloud. You can do it much cheaper from the cloud.
However...
I was looking into the hotel the Synchro ERP team will be staying at, as I wanted the address. The Crowne Plaza downtown St Louis. This is part of the IHG - InterContinental Hotels Group. This group includes Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn, amongst others.
Guess what... In the middle of Friday afternoon, with Spring Break in full force, you can not make a reservation... Talk about bad timing. I have a feeling that there are many travel reservations made on Friday afternoons... Ok, so, what do you do if you need a room for this weekend? In this age of instant communications on the Wild West Web, you would go to a different hotel chain...
This is what scares me the most about having your mission critical operations in the cloud. When I worked at Texas Foundries, Friday's were always huge shipment days and if the AS400 or network was down, then we couldn't ship. No ASN's through EDI could be sent, no barcodes could be printed, no BOL or packing slips. In short, the foundry was at a standstill as it is not possible to ship without access to the computer system. At Texas Foundries, if a shipment went out and was delivered without the proper paperwork and ASN, the shipment would either be returned or we would be charged a penalty...
Before you put all of your eggs in one basket and look towards the sky... give it some hard thought... some hard thought about how much money you are willing to risk losing by migrating to the cloud...
This isn't some mom & pop hotel chain, this is THE HOTEL CHAIN.
Until Next Time,
See you On Down the Road in St. Louis...
Shane Allen
Head of Synchro ERP North American Operations
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