Here at IPSOFACTO, we’re not bullish about getting into the cloud. The cost savings is not ‘phenomenal’, because Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Box.net…..they know how to price their products just slightly cheaper than having an in-house server. Servers are usually on a 4-year obsolescence track, which is why Dell and Apple offer 3-year warrantees with a 1-year extension. Anything beyond 4 years, they don’t want to warranty. But in reality, for a firm that’s not growing/changing/extremely active, then a server can last 6 years, easy. So, if a client of ours says “Let’s go cloud”, then I like to look at the state of the equipment and the warrantees. If the server is 6 years old, then YAH! Let’s really think about going cloud! But if the server is 3 years old, then “Nah! Let’s talk about the investment first…” And for the record, Architectural and Design firms using AutoCAD or Revit etc., should not go cloud. It’ll kill your business. Imagine, an in-house server and a network with 1gb speeds. For $1000/mo you can have synchronous fiber at 10mb or 100 times slower. But overall, it depends on the firm’s IT Strategy, maybe there are multiple offices and we can set up syncing tools where the inconvenience outweighs continuation of the old solution. It’s case-by-case.
