Many of today’s cutting-edge companies are looking to leverage cloud computing where possible – to build customer-facing apps, CRM apps, Professional Services automation, etc. However, those same companies are simply not comfortable outsourcing some of their applications – such as order management, warehouse management, and critical banking or trading applications – to the cloud. This stands to reason; these systems are either part of these organizations’ set of differentiators or are simply too difficult to place outside of their “four walls”. Is there scope for Cloud BPM.
This is the reality in cloud computing today, so how do we work to bridge the world of tomorrow – that is running in the cloud – with the world of today – which is running in private data centers? How do we do so securely and effectively?
The answer lies in the proper use of the technology (BPM) that is just now starting to hit its stride, as users begin to recognize its significant business value. Those of us who have made our livings connecting trading partners via B2B networks for the last 10-15 years know how effective BPM has been in making connectivity more reliable and user-friendly; the same technology can solve the same problems in bridging that gap between the future of cloud computing and the realities of today. We would love to hear your thoughts on how your organization is bridging this gap.
Why Cloud BPM?
- The use of cloud services requires the introduction of even more disparate applications into an enterprise’s application architecture. The challenge of finding the source of an issue in a highly composite infrastructure is a huge challenge – made more challenging by the use of cloud services.
- Cloud services are compelling from a value, capability, and speed to market perspective… But they’re also built on the same less reliable data transfer protocols that send information over the Internet. How often has your Internet connection to your bank or your utility company broken? Do you want that happening with your business information flow without your knowledge?
Cloud BPM allows for immediate failure notification and enhanced integration between their
in-house / data center hosted applications and the portions of their valuable enterprise that runs in the cloud. In summary, the use of Cloud BPM will allow organizations that have adopted SaaS-enabled applications to view cloud-based solutions as part of their standard application portfolio.
