ERP
The Future of Your ERP Part 1: What’s next for your traditional ERP infrastructure?
Author: Liam Freeman, Infrastructure Director, Klipboard Managed Services (formerly Excenta)...
ERP
Author: Liam Freeman, Infrastructure Director, Klipboard Managed Services (formerly Excenta) https://www.klipboard.com/services/klipboard-managed-services
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Every business, every person and every leader will come at this from a slightly different place. Some are ready or have already made the move to “full cloud”, while others want to maintain control but modernise what they already have. Putting cost to one side and focusing on what the real options are in reality, there are three main routes; Traditional Hosting, Vendor Hosting and Cloud Solution Partner.
Option 1: Traditional Hosting (either On-Premises or Data Centre Colo)
The most familiar route is the traditional one. Keeping your ERP on-premises or placing it in a co-location data centre – a server or set of servers in a rack somewhere.
You might build and maintain the environment yourself if you have the skills in house or you might bring in a “typical” Managed Service Provider to help design, deploy and maintain it. They are more generic in nature - in either case, you retain full control.
Key Takeaway: You can therefore move as much or as little of your existing IT stack (not just your ERP, but your other applications and data) to your new environment. You can choose when upgrades happen and define exactly how everything fits together.
You’re responsible for the hardware lifecycle and even if using a 3rd party MSP, indirectly things like patching, updating, security of devices and compliance. You are as good as they are and they have more to manage with this kind of solution vs the cloud. If your server means you have to have a firewall next to it, that needs managing too. This is called the self-hosting tax.
Traditional hosting is best suited to businesses that already have a strong in-house IT capability. It gives flexibility, but with heavier operational considerations.
Key Takeaway: Any device exposed to the internet is now subject to thousands of potentially malicious interactions. Without specific, repeatable OpSec processes to manage the security of your public facing devices - in a world where critical firewall security bugs are revealed every other week – it’s a likely case of when Won't you be breached.
Before you even think about moving anything, benchmark where your performance is today. It could be infrastructure monitoring, database monitoring or even better, real application metrics (how long does it take me to make a sale?). Understanding where you are today allows you to maintain performance at a minimum but ideally improve on it.
Option 2: Vendor Hosted (e.g. “Software-as-a-Service”)
Some, not all, vendors offer a “hosted” or SaaS version of their products. Most of the time they will wrap this up in a single overall fee that includes the hosting and licensing in one invoice. There’s an obvious line of thought here that as the developer of the software there should be no one better placed to know how to look after the software.
However, the underlying approach to providing this service can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and not all software companies make good hosting companies. Some may not even do the infrastructure management of the service at all themselves, so you should investigate this thoroughly. In my next paper I will write about key questions to ask any prospective provider of ERP infrastructure.
Key Takeaway: Most ERP software companies don’t allow third-party software as part of their SaaS offering, so where do you go with the rest of your applications and data? You need another partner and you now have two potentially disconnected silo’s and two partners to manage.
If you’ve got other line-of-business systems; business units, file servers, reporting tools, e-commerce integrations or Microsoft 365, it’s very likely that the software vendor won’t be able to provide a home or management for these services as part of their offering. The approach is normally a silo which has separate user accounts, limited customisation and much less control than the self-hosted option. It’s more of a closed system, efficient at what it does, but restrictive when you need to connect it to everything else.
Key Takeaway: Vendor SaaS can work well if you’re looking for simplicity and you can live entirely within that products ecosystem. But if your environment depends on multiple connected systems, you’ll quickly run into hurdles.
Option 3: Cloud Solution Partner (“CSP”)
The third option – and don’t confuse this with a “traditional” MSP who still defaults to putting a server in your offices or a datacentre, with cloud coming only at a push from you – is a Cloud Solution Partner. Think of these like an MSP – but their job is to bring all the benefits of cloud infrastructure to your business. A strong CSP bridges the gap between traditional infrastructure and a modern cloud approach.
Moving into the cloud removes some of the concerns exposing some services to the internet. Instead of your team or your MSP protecting those – it’s Microsoft and their $10 billion/year security budget.
With the right partner – and there are ways to identify that – your ERP can become part of a bigger, integrated environment, not a standalone system. That means the ERP itself, your supporting other apps, Microsoft 365, identity management, security and automation fan all sit together under a single governed platform: your platform.
Key Takeaway: The right CSP has a strong track record of integrating multiple applications and services into a consolidated, modern cloud platform. For you this means that they can bring that flexibility of on-premises: move as much or as little as you want to the cloud, without some of the security and complexity concerns.
Working with a CSP who has credibility with the software you work with, whether its ERP, Financials or other software is key. The right partner combines that deep industry or ERP expertise with traditional infrastructure requirements to allow you to host core IT functions like file data, printing or identity from the cloud too, under a single platform.
Microsoft 365 is a dominant force in the productivity market and most companies are looking to simplify managing user accounts, MFA, and general user management as much as possible. Because the right CSP can help build your solution inside your Microsoft tenant, this enables things like using the same username, password and MFA controls as you do for your Microsoft 365 services like Outlook. IT Teams like this because the controls for security are highly familiar, transparent and strong. End users find the fact they don’t need to know or change another password highly beneficial.
In the end CSP’s act like a facilitator in that they replace key tasks you might have done on-premises with solutions running from the cloud.
Finding the right partner
The most successful migrations happen when each part of the equation is handled by the right specialists.
Your ERP vendor understands the product itself, your e-commerce partner knows your customers digital journey. If you’re running Microsoft Dynamics for example, then you’ll likely have an expert you can call on for specific help with that. The part most customers miss is a cloud platform specialist, the one who can build out the secure foundation that all of this can run on.
There’s no shortage of companies who can provide cloud advice, design and management, but finding the right partner requires some consideration. “Cloud” as it was maybe 5-8 years ago is now a homogenous set of different groups – security, data, AI, development, IOT, to name a few. At a simple level, some are experts in Linux, others Windows. Not all CSP’s will be the right fit for your requirement.
Key Takeaway: Look for accreditations with their chosen cloud platform vendor(s), for example – if Microsoft is their choice of ecosystem, what Solutions Partner Designations do they hold? Do they have any Specializations? Do these translate to the needs I have ie they might have every “AI” designation today but what I need is an expert on Universal Print.
In the next part of my series, I’ll give some key questions to ask any provider of ERP infrastructure, whether a CSP, MSP or Vendor.
Summary
There is no single right answer. The best choice depends on (and we’re still leaving cost out right now, I’ll come to this later in the series) your priorities: control, flexibility, cost, compliance and scalability. What matters the most is that you’re able to make an informed decision with the full understanding of any trade-off’s.
Modern ERP doesn’t just exist somewhere in case of emergency, it should perform, scale and connect day in day out. The question is not simply where to host it but how to make it work better for your business and at Klipboard we’d love to help you on that journey.
About the author: Liam Freeman is the Infrastructure Director of Excenta, now a part of the Klipboard group. Klipboard Managed Services helps organisations to migrate to, optimise, and manage Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365 environments - on your own terms. Whether you want full end-to-end management or a co-managed model alongside your IT team, our Microsoft acredited team deliver a secure, high-performance cloud infrastructure that’s tailor made to fit your business.
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