Cloud Computing: Pros And Cons
| Aspect | Benefit | Drawback |
| "One size fits all" | Less time required to get up and running | Any customizations will add expense, time, and complexity |
| Cost | Less expensive for many small and midsize companies | May end up more costly than on-premises software for companies prone to customizing |
| Reliability | Better uptime than most small and midsize businesses could hope to achieve | You're beholden to a third party to ensure your systems are running |
| Privacy | How many SaaS vendors have you heard of suffering privacy breaches? | A third party will store your data, but under data breach regulations, you're still liable if it goes missing |
| Feature set | More features than small and midsize businesses would otherwise be able to afford | Feature set is generic, meaning it won't differentiate you from the competition -- if that matters |
Cloud Computing Defined
Just what is cloud computing, anyway? According to a recent SaaS report from Saugatuck Technology, the concept of cloud computing has emerged from notions of "SaaS, the IT utility concept, and business process outsourcing and transformation." Today, the firm views cloud computing as six distinct, emerging platforms that fall into either software-centric or infrastructure-centric camps:
Software-Centric
| Emerging Platform | Selected Vendors |
| Transaction services | |
| Collaboration services | |
| Corporate-consumer business services |
Infrastructure-Centric
| Emerging Platform | Selected Vendors |
| Aggregation-distribution services | |
| SaaS enablement and infrastructure services | |
| IT infrastructure services |
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