If Your Feet aren’t on the Ground, Your Head Should be in the Cloud

If Your Feet aren't on the Ground, Your Head Should be in the Cloud


If you’re in senior management and considering the question of implementing your SharePoint intranet in the Cloud versus using your own servers (or dedicated hosted servers), I’ve got good news.  It’s easy to make the right choice if you briefly consider the following factors.

Your IT Department

Implementing and administrating an effective SharePoint environment is Rocket Science.  If one were to make the right series of mistakes here, a lot of money, work and intellectual property can be lost forever.This is simple, reflect back on your last five or six significant technology projects and grade your IT department on their demonstrated effectiveness and competency. If you would give your IT department a grade less than a solid B, (yes, even a B-) then implement SharePoint in the cloud.

If you’re still reading this, congratulations, you have a solid, competent IT department that you can rely on.  Now let’s take a look at the next factor.

Your Management Team

What I’m talking about here is the group of middle managers and line of business experts that would form the “Intranet Team” that would be assigned the task of designing your organizations “Intranet Strategy and Map”.

Now, Picture the “Strategy and Map” that they would be likely to produce.   (This would be the plan that describes the hierarchy of sites, who owns what, content storage rules, etc, etc)  If, based on past experience, you think you’re likely to give their plan less than a “B”, then you should implement SharePoint in the Cloud.

Why? Without good architecture and intelligent governance to guide the ongoing use of your Intranet, it’s unlikely you will be able to take advantage of the features and benefits offered by the “On Premise” version of SharePoint, at least to the extent that you would be able justify the additional cost.

If you’re still reading this, wow, you not only have a great IT department, but your management team sounds stellar too!

Welcome to SharePoint “On Premise”

Don’t get me wrong, I look at both versions of SharePoint like they’re some weird IT version of Aladdin’s Lamp. When you rub SharePoint the right way, you get miracles.  This is true of both “On Premise” and “Cloud” versions.

The advantage to the “On Premise” version is that you have a higher level of access and control because you’re working with your own dedicated environment (whether it’s in your building or someone else’s).  When you have a gifted IT department and a highly competent management team you will be able to utilize these additional advantages to create some incredible solutions.  This kind of SharePoint implementation can be used to produce systems and automation that can give your business a serious competitive edge and be a game changer for your company.

For everyone else, there’s the Cloud.