Dec
16

By CommenceCRM

Have You Selected the Right Cloud Provider?

A recent report by the Gartner Group should be raising concerns for adopters of cloud computing services. The research firm predicts that 25% of the top 100 IT service providers in the infrastructure space won’t be around by 2015. The report indicates that some will be merged or acquired and some will simply go out of business. What does this means to cloud adopters?

It means you need to be extra careful with whom you do business. This will certainly be a wake up call in the CRM software industry where literally dozens of smaller solution providers offer hosting services from virtually unknown cloud hosting services.

“This has been going on for some time.” says Larry Caretsky, president of Commence Corporation a leading provider of online CRM software to mid-size businesses. “I think the Gartner report will finally create a sense of concern in the industry that has fallen on deaf ears for way too long. Hosting a customer’s data is serious business and opens the door to all kinds of liability. This is the sole reason why Commence Corporation has partnered with one of the leading providers of cloud hosting services.

“What’s concerning is that many companies interested in CRM software don’t seem to care. They see cloud hosting services as a commodity and rarely ask about our services or where their data is stored.”

“What is even more perplexing” says Caretsky “is the small business sector where price is a driving factor for so many CRM product decisions. Many of the low cost or free CRM vendors offer a hosting service with no contract and no disclosure of where the customer’s data is. This should set off an alarm for these customers to be more concerned about the security of their data and not just the cost of the service.”

“It’s time for buyers to beware of the potential damage to their business that may occur if their hosting service provider closes their doors.” says Caretsky. “This is a serious concern and perhaps the Gartner report will provide the impetus for customers to pay closer attention to it.”

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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