Lack of trust in cloud for financial applications ‘significant opportunity for VARs’

More must be done to help end users understand the benefits of moving finance and accounting applications to the cloud, according to Outsourcery. Much of this is rooted in Cloud Services Providers (CSPs) working to become more transparent about their services, but this is only half of the story. Outsourcery believes that to drive real change, the channel must become more confident in advising end users about their options.

While the use of cloud for most functions is on the rise, the transfer of financial applications to the cloud is still stunted and there is significant hesitation amongst end users in this area, suggesting a lack of trust.

Recent research from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) has revealed that as many as 83 per cent of businesses do not use hosted or cloud-based services for accounting and finance applications and 68 per cent of these applications still have specific requirements that impact deployment considerations. This is despite 69 per cent of respondents in the same survey saying that they had adopted cloud to some extent in their IT estate. End users appear to be unnecessarily ruling out cloud in this key area of their business.

Adam Cathcart, Head of Channel at Outsourcery, says: “It is no secret that moving applications to the cloud has become a popular choice for many companies, but according to CIF research there is a clear tendency for many businesses to keep their financial applications in-house. This could be because they are concerned about adhering to specific regulatory requirements but the message needs to be conveyed that cloud can be configured to meet this type of business need. The problem for VARs is to make sure that they understand these regulatory issues and explain the options to their customers clearly.

“Often, a regulatory obligation is not as big a hurdle as it may at first seem. For example, a requirement as simple as making sure you know where your data is stored, or ensuring it is stored in the UK, can easily be achieved by choosing the right CSP. As the channel becomes more comfortable talking to end users about the details of cloud and the options in relation to different applications, the perceived ‘risks’ will begin to be expelled and end users will be able to make full use of the options available to them, ultimately benefitting from all the strengths, synergies and efficiencies that cloud can bring”, Cathcart concludes.

Outsourcery is a founding member of CIF and is certified to meet guidelines set out by the industry body to ensure transparency with its channel partners.