Aside from giving me the alliterative title this a serious question. We have heard the cost saving claims, but what are the pitfalls?  All clouds are not the same so look beyond the marketing claims to the fine

1. Integration

Cloud integration vendors tlak baou this but for most others, this is a missing message.  What happens if you use need to integrate a non-cloud system? . . Build this cost, management, and implementation into your deployment upfront.

2: Hidden costs, or future pricing tiers

Cost saving is a fundamental premise of the cloud, what should you consider tiher than  initial monthly subscription fees. Make sure you fully understand the complete pricing model and how your cost might change based on increased number of users, capacity, features, etc. Does the vendor charge a “per support” charge? Are upgrades to new versions included?

Are there  pricing tiers? What happens when you hit that tier, will your costs can significantly increase, are these costs understood?. This is particularly important if your company is new to cloud consumption, as your ability to show success with an initial deployment will influence future implementations.

3: Real uptime numbers

Do cloud providers have asecret formula to uptime, as nearly everyone claims four or five nines. All networks go down sometimes , but how quickly they recover or how the infrastructure is architected for failover and disaster recovery is key to the impact any downtime has on your business. While few vendors will fully disclose their metrics for absolute uptime, you can ask for reports on the past few months, ask about their maintenance schedules, check with other customers, etc. Do they offer  contractual compensation if they miss their promises?

4: Who is responsible for cloud security of your data?

You are! While the cloud vendor should have best practices around security at all layers — data, application, infrastructure, and personnel — don’t assume you have zero responsibility. A survey by the Ponemon Institute on the Security of Cloud Computing Providers revealed that neither cloud providers nor customers feel responsible for data security in the cloud. In fact, a majority (two-thirds) of cloud providers believe it is their customers’ responsibility to secure the data they store. That’s not good, because it means both sides will be pointing fingers if a data breach occurs.

Make sure you know for what you are responsible  and what the cloud vendor handles when it comes to data protection. Don’t assume the cloud solution covers all security aspects. You may still need to handle your own encryption or policies. For IaaS and other infrastructure-related clouds, chances are you could be fully responsible for the security (and reliability) of your cloud instance.

5: Who holds the key

In this case, I’m talking about the encryption key. How your data is protected is vital, but beyond overall security and privacy, the details around encryption are rarely discussed. First make sure your data is encrypted at ALL times, both in motion and at rest. Then, find out how the vendor manages and secures the encryption keys, specifically around access control rules and policies governing encryption key management. This is vital for all companies, but particularly if you are in a regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance.

6: The real speed of data restoration

Cloud-based data storage and backup can offer  real data protection issues, but the backup is only as good as the data recovery. Once your data is safely in the cloud, can you get it back, and quickly, when you need it? Ask questions about data restore . Is this chargeable – it should be if you want proper help. Data restore is not just dependent on the cloud solution or provider’s capabilities, it may also depend on your bandwidth. For critical systems  run your own tests and make sure you know what is possible based on your actual upload and download times. This affects not only data restore but the initial data seeding to the cloud.

7: If multi-tenancy is really isolated

Many cloud applications and platforms use multi-tenancy to separate your data or view of a solution from others. If architected correctly, multi-tenancy is a great way to enable multiple companies to leverage a single platform with absolute security and privacy. However, multi-tenancy can have vulnerabilities, depending on how the cloud provider automatically provisions virtual servers, starts up operating systems, and assigns storage, among other areas.

8: How to move your data to another cloud or solution

Migration or transition from one technology or application to another is never fun. But with cloud solutions, it’s could be  catastrophic. Make sure you know upfront how you get your data “out” of the cloud and how easy or hard it is to move it to another solution. In some ways, this goes hand in hand with integration — you need to know how to move data across clouds or between on-premise and cloud solutions all the time. How would you would manage the move>.

9: The fine print regarding privacy

There’s a reason it’s called “fine” print, as so read it anyway. When it comes to privacy or your data and your personal information in the cloud, what type of cloud it is can vastly affect the vendor’s privacy rules. For example, if the cloud depends on advertising for its revenue, chances willit  use your information to give advertisers data on its users. If the revenue comes from the end users, the vendor has an incentive to keep your information protected so you stay as a paying customer.

10: How “green” is the cloud?

The cloud often promises just that. However, every cloud has a physical infrastructure and cloud computing is driving a massive data center build out. According to a recent Greenpeace report, nearly $450 billion dollars is  spent annually on new data center facilities.  The EPA reports that some 2% of North American electricity consumption comes from data centers and servers and it expects that to continue rising. Greenpeace suggests cloud computing is responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions. So if going green is one of your cloud goals, make sure your cloud is greener than others. You can use the Greenpeace scorecard to help. of course local servers, local A/c etc may be far more inefficient (and costly).

So what do we offer for e.g. Micorsoft Dynamics Ax?

SECURITY
For many, the issue is always data and systems security, and no wonder: security is a constant battle against myriad international forces and elements—a battle in which most in-house teams are simply overmatched. But in the Cloud, security is assured.

Your AX from the Cloud solution will run in a Tier 3 data center where data is physically and digitally protected and preserved in the best possible way, with extensive intrusion checks and back-ups made and delivered daily. Data is simply more secure in the Cloud—safeguarded around-the-clock by security-dedicated experts—than when it’s with the often over-taxed and/or multitasking staff members in the IT department.

FLEXIBILITY
The Cloud = true flexibility.  There are no restrictions on how you would customize your solution. And here are no restrictions on how many or how few users. There are no restrictions, period

With the Cloud, accessibility requires only a web connection. Login, and you’re “home.”

Simple, per user/per month cost to manage. This includes everything: infrastructure, services, and maintenance, and all software, including the AX license! Run the numbers against any on-premise offering and you’ll find that AX from the Cloud practically guarantees a lower TCO. 

SLA

In addition to 24/7 support, this pricing, functionality, and flexibility comes with an unparalleled Service Level Agreement with a 99.9% up-time guarantee for your AX Cloud solution—in writing, and with financial penalties in place. Your AX ERP platform is available, or you’re compensated: it’s as simple as that.

This compensation includes: A 10% discount on monthly expenses of the Services involved, with a maximum of 40 %, for each 0.1% below the Availability percentage of such Service(s).

SLA performance and the related compensations are recorded and settled per calendar month based on the SLA report of the prior month.

#1 in Dynamics Cloud computing –with 14 years of experience  running more than 450 Microsoft Dynamics Cloud solutions, and recently earned Microsoft’s first-ever ERP Hosting Partner of the Year award (2011). The Cloud offering is built on the strongest foundation there is—the complete Microsoft Stack—and in addition to Synergy local support the cloud infrastructure is supported by >100 engineers, and an international team that’s provides cover  all day, every day.

Our provider has the highest security certifications available (ISAE 3402 and SSAE 16), housing  servers in Tier 3 data centers, and both the systems, and the  employees, are audited and vetted annually. With Synergy, security isn’t an afterthought; it’s a mindset.

Is my ERP data safe in the Cloud?

More safe than it would be on-premise in most every case. And there are five reasons: compliance, redundancy, infrastructure, software, and provider.

1. Compliance: Your Dynamics AX Cloud solution is under the umbrella of a virtual regulatory system set-up to ensure safety and security, such as SAS70 Type II certification (now replaced by SSAE16 and ISAE3402). Every year, our Cloud platform Partner is audited by PWC for its ISAE 3402 and SSAE16 certification. These certifications are, of course, available on request.

1. Redundancy: A large driver fueling demand for Cloud platforms is recovery and redundancy. There are regular backups within servers and data centers, and there are also redundancies via different data centers that span the globe. On the other hand, if something happens to the “premise” in on-premise, your data may no longer be secured; worse, it may be destroyed.

1. Infrastructure: Your data and solution is housed in Tier 3 data centers (dual power, 99.95% uptime, highest level of physical protection—manual ports disabled, security/surveillance—72 hour power outage protection). How solid is Cloud security? Here’s an example: within the data centers, network access ports are disabled by default so that no one may physically connect to our network from a data center.

1. Software: Our Cloud platform has a multi-level security structure with four layers of firewalls, with customer data stored in the deepest layer. The network is segmented and layered to filter and restrict access, and any administrative access over any public is encrypted to ensure no capture of data during transmission.

1. Provider: Each employee involved with hosting in the cloud  screened before hiring (e.g., with background checks),and trained  in the latest security standards and practices, and then re-screened and re-train them each year to ensure every employee is 100% up to-speed in all security best practices.

   There are  strict policies on access list and password management for our operators. Every act in systems and storage devices is logged and kept for security audits. Specialized third party companies offer Intrusion Detection Services, guarding 24/7 if there is someone trying to get unauthorized access through via the outer ring of firewalls protecting the Cloud.

Here are some typical FAQs:

Will I lose control of my data in the Cloud?

You enjoy even more control than you do on-premise: it stays your data, 100%. But with Dynamics AX in the Cloud, your data is now available to you no matter where you are or what hardware you’re using. The Cloud will make you “device- and location-independent.”

Is the Cloud public, private, or both?

Short answer is it can be both. Public, however, does not mean wide open like a public park; it merely means “shared” and we offer both private Clouds and public Clouds. The only real difference is in how they’re managed. Additionally, we can offer a hybrid model that takes advantage of other public clouds, providing the private Cloud in conjunction with a public Cloud, such as Azure.

Will I lose performance in the Cloud?

Our cloud solutions are delivered according to Microsoft reference architecture recommendations. We guarantee this level of performance and will scale up infrastructure to fulfill this promise without charging extra. That’s a performance guarantee you can take to the bank.

Do I have to replace my software and systems?

Absolutely not. Working with a Cloud-based ERP or CRM system will feel the same as working with an on-premise solution. The only difference is that you no longer have to maintain or support your platform. And if you have existing licenses, we can help you use them in the Cloud with ease.

Integration is a concern for me. Will my Cloud solution work with my legacy systems?

Yes, you are dealing with a knowledgeable and supportive provider that can enable the integration of any service via custom integrations and usual protocols, or with third party products like Bizztalk (from Microsoft).

What about vendor lock-in? I don’t want to be stuck with something I’m not using.

Vendor lock-in is simply impossible in the Cloud. It’s always only ever a one-month commitment, and a back-up of your latest data is available with very first request you make.

Can I migrate my existing data or existing licenses to the Cloud?

Yes, migration services for your Dynamics AX data and licenses are available. And the process is always executed with minimal disruptions to your business operations.

How do I access my Cloud solution?

You simply open a browser and our web portal, and click the Dynamics AX icon (and if you’re running CRM or SharePoint via the Cloud as well, it’ll be available through the same portal).

 Can I customize my Cloud solution?

Of course! Putting Dynamics in the Cloud makes customizations easier than ever, and there are virtually no restrictions.

 Are there issues with system availability?

There is a comprehensive Service Level Agreement (SLA) that guarantees availability. And we guarantee 99.9% application uptime, which means that your system may be offline for only 1/3 of day per year, total. This is typically 5 x less than most on-premise solutions, which often go down for Windows and SQL updates, etc.

 What about data back-ups? Failovers? Recoveries?

Back-ups are done daily, and there are 3  data centers to ensure failover: two in Europe, one in the US, and one more will be set up (Q3, 2012) in Singapore. With recovery, you have three options, priced at a percentage of your service fees

 “Cold” scenario (20% of service fee)

• • RPO* of 24 hours
  • RTO** of 62 hours
  • “Warm” scenario (30% of service fee)
    • RPO of 4 hours
    • RTO of 24 hours
    • “Hot” scenario (40% of service fee)
      • RPO of 1 hours
      • RTO of 4 hours

 *RPO is recovery point objective, which dictates the allowable data loss.

**RTO is recovery time objective, which is the time you go without a specific application.

Does the Cloud require an up-front capital investment?

Absolutely not. One of the major financial benefits of moving to the Cloud is there is no capital expenditure for infrastructure required: zero,. When you move to the Cloud, technology stops being a capital expense and instead becomes an operating expense, and one you can easily manage. There is one off fee for set up of our environment and Ax system.

 Sounds like I save money up-front, but what about the long run? What about TCO?

Putting Dynamics AX on the Cloud results in a lower total cost of ownership every time. For one reason, you don’t need your own IT staff to run the application. For another, you don’t need to purchase or maintain hardware. Computer energy costs, A/c costs, and insurance costs and the rental cost of storage space, are other hidden cost savings such  as: firewalls, Windows licences, Sql licences, access control systems, fire protection systems, cleaning costs, downtime costs for patches etc.  For another, 46% of all acquired software becomes “shelfware” (Gartner). With the Cloud, you only pay for what you use! All in all, going to the Cloud can reduce TCO by 30% in as little as three years.

How does pricing work?

Easiest part of being in the cloud: per user, per month pricing. You can start with as little as one user for only 30 days. (The cost is based on the type of software you need, the level of service you require, etc.)

Who do I call for support?

Synergy is your first port of call and we are backed by a 24×7 support for the infrastructure

So what exactly do I get for my monthly fee?

Big picture: a complete and secure Dynamics AX system for as many (or as few) users as you require. One that never needs updating, upgrading, or maintain, and that will empower you with a level of flexibility that will make you feel about on-premise the way your first smartphone made you feel about landlines.

 Here is a detailed list of some deliverables (outside the standard features and benefits your AX solution will deliver).

• Acquisition and usage of required infrastructure
• Licenses: Operating system, SQL (if applicable), Terminal Server (if applicable)
• Secure, daily backups
• Support desk with 24×5 support, standard
• Maintenance of infrastructure and middleware software components
• Management and security maintenance of the infrastructure
• Technical application management (for Supported and Adopted service levels)
• SOX compliancy of your Cloud provider
• Annual SSAE16 and SAE3402 certification of your Cloud provider
• All upgrades, services packs, and patches included—for no additional cost
• SQL implementation
• AX Object customizations can be added to your build at no extra SaaS cost
• Web-client support
• Advanced Printing
• Microsoft EasyPrint
• Run Object Designer