Cloud v On Premise – Understanding it all

By: Debra Lilley

VP Certus Cloud Services

Oracle ACE Director

Ok you know me I talk via analogies, so today I am going to talk about my recent move from PC to Mac and how that relates to Cloud v On Premise for your applications.

The problem with analogies are they are never an exact fit so let’s get cost off the table straight away. If you move to Cloud, user for user, process for process you should save money on a cloud implementation over existing on-premise implementation. I know, I have never heard that about MAC v PC.

For many years people have told me a MAC is better, I worked for a company that made PCs so it was a little irrelevant but my daughter wanted, (and got) a MAC, they were also quite trendy. When I left that company a little over a year ago she said to me ‘why don’t you buy a MAC? ‘ My immediate response was I wasn’t sure what I was going to do so I would buy a relatively cheap PC and consider it later.

I thought about all the things I need to do, I have to still have MS Office as that is what is used in my new company, but you can have office on a MAC. Obviously I need Internet but no one I know complains about Safari and some things I use work better on Firefox and installing that is no different. Everyone I know who uses a MAC loves it and in my peer group in the ACE Program it appears to be the device of choice (where corporate policy allows).

Picture courtesy of Graham Smith Oracle ACE Briefings 2013

I thought I had done my homework, so when I lost my laptop I decided to replace it with a MAC so at least after the experience I would be better off.

Yes MS Office is available on the MAC, but it isn’t identical. I use TripIt for consolidating my travel plans and it works brilliantly with outlook on office as I can subscribe to the TripIt calendar. You can’t do that on a MAC version. There is a way around it, I can use the MAC calendar to subscribe and the iCloud combines them both together on my iPhone, annoying but I am getting used to it.

Cloud Applications do have exactly the same code as on-premise version, but there are also some restrictions. There are also differences when migrating from traditional products like E Business Suite to Oracle Cloud Applications. I can’t directly go and query tables as I would have use to, but I can (with the right permissions) see all tables through the BI Publisher.

The MS Add Ons I need for Cloud Applications like Smart View don’t work on IoS so I had to install Windows on my MAC, and I know I am in danger of mixing my metaphors here, but it was the same experience, take what I knew from using either a PC or On Premise, break down each component and see how it works on MAC or in Cloud. Where they differ it is frustrating and I feel the need to set up a short cut in Google ‘How do I do x on a MAC?’ but once you have mastered it then you just get on and do it. A little way down the line you forget how it was.

Yes I am MAC converted, yes I am defiantly Cloud converted, but I recommend you are part of a support group for either. I make my long time MAC friends laugh when I tweet or email a question, but they love to help. Last week I attended an Oracle Alliances training course on ERP Cloud and between us we identified most differences in the way you work. User Groups are brilliant for sharing and gaining knowledge.