Conclusions
Since moving to Azure, 360 Lifecycle has already added several new customers to its roster, and is set to add more during the early part of 2011. "Already we've done a number of pitches to businesses - a couple of medium businesses and some large businesses - where the cloud technology has definitely been an interesting differentiator and does allow the overall cost of the implementation of the product to be significantly reduced" says the Lifetime group's Managing Director, Carlos Thibault.
Apart from where you have to, I would almost recommend that people didn't run their applications on-premise. Even if you've got the stuff - the kit sitting in the corner - the built-in disaster recovery, and the peace of mind that someone else is looking after all this stuff makes it all worthwhile. It's not all about cost-savings, though those are significant. Just that peace of mind means that if you can, you should do it.
David Steele, IT Director, Lifecycle 360
For Thibault, the current state of the industry combined with new legislation arriving in 2013 puts 360 Lifecycle in a strong position. "There's a desire to reinvest in technology to support businesses, and what the cloud allows us to do is to be able to pitch and position the product as an opportunity for businesses to do that without massive capital expenditure." The company is so happy with the new Azure-based product that it's looking to roll it out into other industries. "A lot of the principles apply to whichever business you're in."
David Steele is even more effusive. "We're over the moon" he says. "It really makes so much difference to a small software company. It takes so much away from me that I don't have to worry about any more. Across the whole of the business. It has a positive effect on sales, a positive effect on support and provisioning. Everything we do, it touches and makes easier."
