Cloud has been on a lot of boardroom agendas for quite a while, but typically those discussions have focused on using cloud around edge applications – expenses management, human capital management or perhaps customer relationship management. However, as the cloud cover extends to business-critical processes and core activities, five new considerations for enterprise cloud deployment have arisen.
There should be no difference whatsoever to end users when they are faced with an application via the cloud or on-premise. This begins with the user interface, which needs to be intuitive and critically consistent across desktops, tablets and mobile devices. Much of the success of the likes of Facebook is due to the fact that the social experience is not interrupted or disrupted by the cloud behind it and that the interface is so consistent. This invisibility also applies to performance – applications delivered via the cloud must be just a quick, if not faster, than on-premise alternatives.