Cloud computing and its impact on Lawson

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L G
Advanced Member
Posts: 38
Advanced Member
    Hi
    Given the rise of cloud computing and the push it is receiving from Lawson and other application vendors what changes do you foresee in the way Lawson is supported across organizations.
    The traditional Lawson support model is probably going the way of the dodo and having staff within the organization will be redundant for application support and maintenance and an occasional upgrade.
    However what are the roles/responsibilities for software developers and consultants that you still foresee in the new cloud based model.
    You can also share your experiences with other cloud based applications like Salesforce.
    DLucasForte
    New Member
    Posts: 2
    New Member
      I am hopeful that this will actually make it easier for consultants to do their jobs. Because if Infor Lawson is more Cloud friendly, this opens up a great deal of possibility for remote maintenance, training, monitoring and troubleshooting. Theoretically, this could make it easier to close consulting deals at lower rates and allow us to offer more flexible options for our clients.

      This is presuming that now that Infor is holding the reigns, the Cloud capabilities will expand and be more supported.
      Malhotra
      New Member
      Posts: 2
      New Member
        Hello,

        Good discussion about cloud computing. It is boom in market.

        Thanks
        Peter O
        Veteran Member
        Posts: 69
        Veteran Member
          'Cloud' tech is such a vague PR term, it can really mean anything. For example, if you're a managed services client, you're already on "the cloud", as in you're already on a virtual server which is hosted on the amazon cloud platform.
          Infor uses EC2 as IaaS,PaaS, etc. Unless you're hosted internally (which is still most likely merely a "private cloud"), you're already using "the cloud".

          The CloudSuite is supposedly providing all the development tools delivered via the cloud as well... so the only real difference is that you don't seem to need local installs of anything for development. [EDIT: This isn't the case with Landmark "CloudSuite" installs - you still need local installs for development. This means there doesn't seem to be any real difference at all - they seem to be capitalizing off of the "Cloud" buzzwords for marketing]

          Consultants will probably be in more demand for implementation/application setup/initial configuration tasks. I doubt they will be in much demand for maintenance or similar tasks. Also... it depends on what you mean by "occasional upgrade". It seems like CTP's & CU's are coming out for severely broken application pieces every few weeks. They seem to be in such a rush to release new functionality that they don't put much into regression testing.

          I think their cloud platform will hide some of the weaknesses with that - since I've heard claims that they will do seamless patching "in the cloud", it may hide some of the application issues [Edit: This also depends on your agreement apparently]. Then again, given that many of the CTP's we see break several other items- you might have a working platform on Monday, then they break it with a hidden CTP update on Tuesday. That makes me a little apprehensive.

          Overall, it's probably a good thing for Infor to move to cloud services because it will enable them to validate a subscription model (which seems to be the trend nowadays for these services), look good on their financials, and hopefully make it easier for their development teams to focus on improving the applications under a common framework.