Is the "Cloud" important to your company?

[prwhite]

According to industry consultant, Andy Tribute, “This will be the ‘Cloud’ Drupa”. How important will the Cloud be for you and your company now and in the future?

 

[gordo]

The Cloud will be the foundation of the post PC era which is just now beginning.

best, gordo

 

[Greg_Firestone]

The cloud is extremely important from both a vendor and client standpoint.

From a vendor side, we can offer a greater number of products to a wider variety of customers. Instead of outright software purchases which may be cost prohibitive for certain customers, we can offer per-use and subscription pricing models which can be more flexible depending on someone's needs and budgets.

From the client side, besides flexible pricing models, there are lower operating costs. You don't need to worry about buying and maintaining hardware, software upgrades, or having a backup solution. You can also utilize scalability of the cloud if you have have peaks and troughs in your volume; everything can be on-demand so there's no wasted investment.

Regards,
Greg

 

[Morning Flight]

The Cloud will be the foundation of the post PC era which is just now beginning.

No question, gordo. Helped immensely by the iPad tsunami. It won't be long before the mouse is relegated to a supporting role with a swipe of our index finger.

Until recently, I had strong reservations about the rush to the cloud. Murphy's law says that if anything can go wrong, it will. Imagine what will happen when the internet goes dark for a month, taken down not by a hacker but by a rogue nation that either feels threatened or just wants to send the world a message.

Begs the question: If the internet goes down, won't power grids go down with it? Desktop apps are as useless as the ballyhooed cloud if there's no electricity.

True, but here's the difference: Desktop apps and internal networks can be kept running with a generator. While we're busy reinventing Morning Flight for the cloud, we'll keep producing parallel versions for the desktop.

Hal

 

[Carl38]

Advantages of cloud based solutions are numerous

From the vendor point of view, we reduce our fixed costs and can therefore lower the investment requirement for our customers.

From the customer point of view, a flexible pricing model more or less related to the usage along with no hassle of scaling, maintaining, upgrading, backuping allows for using up-to-date solutions at the fraction of the cost of an owned maintained infrastructure. In other words, the customer focuses on its core business.

Carl

 

[almaink]

The cloud is just another nail in the coffin for printing. Between Apple's latest OS and Adobe wanting to sell all apps as subscriptions printing as we know it is just got pushed another step in the grave.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

The cloud is still a bit fluffy to me… like sugar candy all sweet n full of promises of instant satisfaction… what's the IT equivalent of the dentist?

 

[alu]

the dentist herself will never be fully replaced, but some of her services will be..

take an x-ray of your teeth with your ipad mouth scanning attachment, upload to the cloud, crowdsourcing service will determine best course of action, "work order" created for your automagically in the form of a QR code. drop by a "dental processing shop" on your way back from lunch, your code is scanned automatically and someone starts work on you in 5 mins or less.

 

[Happyprinter]

The one downside I see to the "Cloud" is this. When I purchase a program such as Adobe CS? I can use it as long as I want until I decide to upgrade, several years perhaps. But with cloud technology, Adobe can force me to upgrade every year or not allow me access to my CS programs unless I do. Of course I am using Adobe as an example but any software supplier out their can us the cloud to drive up operating costs for the end user by forcing us to continually upgrade or be cut off. Am I seeing things right or am I missing something? I can see some benefits but overall I see more expense that otherwise I wouldn't have to pay.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

There was a discussion about this, in another forum, and I hope they find a system like a "frequent flyers" so that if you tire of having your head in the clouds and want to have your feet touch ground there should be an option to cross-grade from cloud to feet-on-solid-ground versions of the software… didn't get a final answer but there are vibes about trying to find a path for those wanting to descend. That goes for other software companies. I think a programme like "buy out of a leased car" model should be able to apply?

 

[Keith]

Begs the question: If the internet goes down, won't power grids go down with it? Desktop apps are as useless as the ballyhooed cloud if there's no electricity.

Hal

Not necassarily. I've had my internet down but still had electricity. My phone is VOIP. So I loose phone calls too. Which is actually kinda nice sometimes, I can still print and do estimates... without interuptions! LOL! I use Apple's iCloud for my contacts which is real nice when I have to call a customer or email and I'm not at my shop.

As for desktop software vs. cloud subscriptions, it depends on the cost. I think most shops could probably purchase a $500 piece of software but a $50,000 MIS system would probably be easier for most shops as a monthly payment.

 

[Greg_Firestone]

any software supplier out their can us the cloud to drive up operating costs for the end user by forcing us to continually upgrade or be cut off. Am I seeing things right or am I missing something? I can see some benefits but overall I see more expense that otherwise I wouldn't have to pay.

Hi Happyprinter,

This will vary from vendor to vendor. With our software, upgrades are included and handled by us. We use Microsoft's Office365 for email and they handle it the same way.

If vendors start raising their prices to an uncomfortable level, their customers can easily jump ship. Unlike traditional software purchases, their customers haven't invested thousands of dollars into a piece of software/hardware that will sit and collect dust if they stop using it. It's much harder to step away from a 20k software investment than one which costs a fraction of that amount.

I understand your concern about having to upgrade before you're ready. Newer software may require additional training and testing. You'll want to inquire how the vendor performs updates and how it is rolled out to users. These are good questions to ask any vendor if you're interested in their products.

Greg

 

[DanB]

I just don't like the idea that our shop could be shutdown due to a cloud that gets blown away. What about security. Nothing is safe in the cloud! Hackers can and will disrupt things. The cloud "owners" could favor some over others. Who knows what could happen.

Keeping your data and software locally on your own storage devices, servers, MACs and PC's is the only way I think you can be sure you have control.

Dan

 

[dabob]

The "cloud" is going to have to prove itself over time to us . . . disk drives are cheap and faster than any internet connection I can afford . ..

 

[David Milisock]

>Newer software may require additional training and testing.
Or may not have vital features of the previous version.

 

[David Milisock]

>The "cloud" is going to have to prove itself over time to us . . . disk drives are cheap and faster than any internet connection I can afford . ..
I'm just a little black rain cloud hovering under the print shop, pay not attention to me. Judging from the happiness of my clients I'm laughing.

 

[Paul Santer]

I use various cloud based services and applications in a segmented way. I have mail and office based documents in one cloud, web site tools and management in another cloud and finally back up and archiving in another cloud.
I see it more as clouds and not "the cloud". What I do at the moment works well for me, but one thing I have an issue with is how to effectively manage your files and work when your services are spread over multiple clouds, do you have to invest in an additional cloud based workflow to manage all your cloud based services effectively.
And what happens when you need to use one cloud based service as a plug-in to another?

 

[Sustainable]

A hackers paradise. There better be some dam good firewalls and encryption. Alexandre Dumas and his novel "The Three Musketeers" famous line "One for all and all for one" could be the new cloud slogan.

 

[Sticker Printing]

Thank you for sharing information of Drupa Technology. it is very helpful to me. i hope it is also very useful for other people who are using Drupa Technology.

 

[Dan Roll]

I'm told I have spent my entire career operating in a cloud.