Document Management in the Cloud
Traditional On-Premise vs. the SaaS Model

There is a new demand to get office networks off the ground and into the cloud. Companies large and small are considering a transition from on-premise systems for organizing their business files and records to cloud-based document management solutions to take advantage of cost savings, as well as benefit from unique features such as folderless data structures.

For many years, the only way to deploy a document management solution was to purchase the number of software licenses needed, and then install the software on internal servers and/or individual workstations. In addition, organizations typically had to devote precious internal IT resources (or hire technical consultants) to administer the system, backup data and troubleshoot problems. When the software and internal hardware systems approached obsolescence, companies were forced to re-invest in expensive upgrades.

Cloud-based platforms now offer a very different model, which often proves to be more affordable and flexible. Benefits of cloud-based document management include robust and scalable storage capacity, folderless and attachment-free file sharing capabilities, and stringent access and security control features—and all without large initial outlays for hardware and licenses typically associated with on-premise deployments.

Not only do cloud solutions represent a significant shift in how businesses access and manage their digital content, but also how they pay for it. In a software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription model, all expenses for storage, management, maintenance and support are included in one monthly fee—in effect, leasing the software and storage capacity—as opposed to installing software on-premise on their own servers.

Whether one model costs more than the other over the lifetime of use depends on each specific business situation. What is clear is that the SaaS model drastically lowers the barrier for entry to utilize document management solutions for many organizations. In addition, cloud-based document management can serve as a viable alternative to expanding or upgrading internal networks.

Why The Cloud?

Why manage your documents, files and records in the cloud? Several reasons:

1. Convenient online access to company documents from any location. Cloud access makes sense for today's laptop-equipped employees, who can retrieve business documents from home, while waiting for a flight or while in a meeting at a client's office. Similarly, organizations with multiple office locations can share data from a single repository, rather than from separate, unrelated server platforms and confusing personal folder schemes.

2. Freedom from the responsibilities of server ownership. Running servers requires monitoring, maintenance and administration, as well as troubleshooting resources when the server(s) goes down. Cloud solutions liberate organizations from not only the initial costs of buying dedicated hardware and software, but also all the unpredictable costs of ownership.

3. Greater reliability. While in-office servers can experience sporadic downtime that stalls work progress, cloud systems have an average uptime rate of 99.97%. Providers of cloud-based solutions host their platforms on massive state-of-the-art servers and continually back-up their solutions and customer data via redundant, fault-tolerant systems.

4. Better protection against data loss. Laptops can be lost, hard drives can fail and servers can crash. Managing documents in the cloud instead of on internal systems protects companies against accidents that can occur to physical devices. The cloud solution provider performs backups of customer content regularly.

5. More control over information access. Multiple firewalls protect against unwanted access from the outside, while document management permissions can restrict access to specific files or document types, enforcing privacy of sensitive information.

6. Seamless scalability for workflow peaks and valleys. If more capacity is needed, the customer simply pays the cloud solution provider incrementally more, rather than having to purchase an additional server. Conversely, if work is cut back and a subscriber now has fewer users, it can modify its subscription accordingly.

7. No capital expenditures. SaaS subscriptions are classified as operating expenses, while in-house servers and software licenses are considered assets (which depreciate and require eventual replacement). In this regard, companies pay for cloud-based document management in the same fashion as they do their utility bills. This accounting re-categorization can provide companies with a larger allotment for capital expenditures, which can be used for other projects.

Organizing Content in the Cloud

There are many challenges presented by traditional file-sharing schemes. Unstructured data are files that accumulate haphazardly on hard drives and shared server folders, unrelated to an overarching framework.

In most business environments, only a fraction of a company's documentation classifies as actual structured data (i.e., automatically arranged and accessed by business applications). Examples of structured data include entries in an accounting program or customer contacts in a database. Unstructured information includes just about everything else: from contracts, reports and spreadsheets, to presentations, videos and photos.

Unfortunately, many companies have little control over, or even knowledge of, their unstructured data. It's dependent upon individual users to remember the names of documents, their contents and where they reside. Furthermore, folder structures that start out with some semblance of logic quickly sprawl into disorganization because there are rarely internal mechanisms governing naming conventions of files, the creation of folders or where files are located. As a result, documents are often misfiled, misnamed and mistaken for other versions.

In contrast, cloud-based document management provides organizations with a more contemporary approach to managing vital files and records, which keeps all content structured and precisely identified.

By using a few simple file management tools integrated into a cloud-based interface, companies can effectively manage their digital content and avoid the typical pitfalls of open-ended, ad-hoc folder systems.

Indexing each stored item with keyword properties and other metadata gives a file or record a unique identity. Users can retrieve any document immediately with a combination of words that describe the document or its purpose, just as they would perform a basic Web search. When all items are structured in the cloud within a database framework, users can query and cross-reference digital archives in many different ways. They can also sort and locate files by other data attributes recorded by the system: within a range of dates, by role-based access or authorship, by customer or by nearly any other custom-made classification.

Is the Cloud the Answer for You?

This article describes how cloud-based document management solutions empower companies to gain greater control over their business files and records, eliminate up-front costs for deployment, reduce IT hardware and staff support needs and benefit from almost limitless scalability for future needs. The decision is now in your hands—is it time for your organization to begin managing your documents in the cloud, and if so, which solution is the best fit for your specific needs?

Companies already heavily invested in on-premise systems may not feel the need to abandon existing infrastructure, but might find the cloud a viable alternative to traditional expansion or upgrades. In situations where such organizations add new departments, launch large-scale projects, or otherwise need to quickly expand their access capabilities, a "hybrid" solution that incorporates both a cloud platform and on-premise network scheme may prove to be the wisest approach. In fact, GigaOM notes that 60% of businesses plan to implement a hybrid cloud model, combining cloud and on-premise deployments.