ERP CLOUD AND

OPEN SOURCE

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 CLOUD: CONCEPT AND DEFINITIONS
 Cloud computing is a web based service that is hosted or accommodated outside the
organization.
 When organizations they use these services IT infrastructure resides outside their
premises and this infrastructure is hosted by a third party.
 IT infrastructure consists of hardware, software applications, operating systems, complex
networks, UPS etc.

Cloud Sample Representation

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 Types of Cloud Computing
• There are four types of cloud computing delivery: public cloud, private cloud,
community cloud and hybrid clouds. Armbrust defined a public cloud as a
pay-as-you-go implementation for the public while a private cloud is not made
available to the public. A community cloud is utilized via a collection of
organizations which have common interests and a hybrid cloud is a
combination of a public and private cloud.

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To be Contd..

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 Three broad types of cloud computing (shown in fig 2) are as follows:
• 1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) : It is the lowest layer of the network
which the user via the cloud providers uses fundamental computing resources
such as processing power, storage, memory, operating system and networking
components such as firewalls or middleware.

• 2. Platform as a Service (PaaS): The users build their own applications based
on the infrastructure service providers. They control the applications but they
do not have control over the operating system, hardware or network
infrastructure.
• 3. Software as a Service (SaaS): The consumer uses an application, but does
not control operating system, hardware or network infrastructure on which it's
running.

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 CLOUD COMPUTING: CHARACTERISTICS
1. Use of Latest Technology
Security is often shown as a concern on the cloud based applications.
However, in recent years with the increased number of business applications and the security
concerns raised by the enterprises service providers are making sure to provide dedicated
support to resolve security related concerns.
Performance of the applications is continuously monitored. Cloud is provided with the latest
state of art architecture with Web Services as the system interface.
Performance is measured at the peak transaction load. It is also being monitored at the total
concurrent users logged in.
Reliability is always proportional to the uptime of applications and systems. Cloud based data
centres are certified with international standards and definitely well-equipped to protect any
hazardous situation.
Reliability can further be enhanced if multiple redundant sites are used, which makes well-
designed cloud computing suitable for business continuity and disaster recovery.
Scalability is always looked at from the business growth. Business growth would call for
increase in transactions, number of users, geographical locations etc. Business growth
sometimes also attributes to acquisition of few organizations.
Scalability of hardware will call for increasing storage space, memory, buying new server(s),
etc.
Enterprises which are in cloud computing environment need not worry about scaling up the
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2.
Cost Effectiveness
 Multitenancy: Multitenancy feature of cloud computing is extremely useful for the
shared services.
 This would not only lowered the cost of adopting the cloud technology but also
optimize the utilization.
 CAPEX to OPEX: IT need not worry about preparing expensive Capital
Expenditures (CAPEX) instead operational expenditures (OPEX) take the ruling.
 Along with this even the IT skills can be outsourced to manage the maintenance
part once the implementation is over. CAPEX to OPEX is a major advantage in
difficult times; where in cash position is extremely sensitive!!
 Maintenance of cloud computing applications is cost effective as compared to
having maintenance with an in-house person.
3. Quick Deployment
 Customer can buy the software over the cloud for a limited period of time to have
the proof of concept.
 Customer can try out all the possibilities of having best fit to their organization in
terms of processes, security, user, friendliness, etc.
 This will also initiate a quick business call whether to go for the software and on the
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CLOUD ERP: DEPLOYMENT MODELS

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 CLOUD ERP IMPLEMENTATIONS: KEY CONSIDERATIONS
 Objective of choosing cloud based ERP is to get the application running
quickly to get the visibility and see some good returns.

 Long drawn ERP methodologies are not suitable for implementation of

cloud ERP.

 Apart from savings in IT infrastructure procurement cost a value

proposition for cloud ERP has to be a quicker deployment and
implementation.

 If organization demands a long drawn classical way of implementation

then, technology has no barrier to this.

 It is suggested instead of providing all the functionalities upfront it is

better to adopt cloud ERP which provides very robust limited quick
functionality,
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 CLOUD ERP: MARKET PLAYERS

SN Name of the Vendor Product

1 EPICOR EPICOR Express
2 Infor Infor
3 Netsuite Netsuite ERP
4 Plex Systems Plex online
5 SAP AG SAP/R3
6 Oracle Corporation Oracle E-Business Suite
7 Acumatica Acumatica

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 OPEN SOURCE: CONCEPTS AND DEFINITIONS
 Open source is the source code of the software freely available so that anyone
can download, use it, modify, and redistribute it.

 Concept behind OSS is software developers may want to publish their software
with a license mentioning anybody may also develop the same software or
understand its internal functioning.

 With open source software, generally anyone is allowed to create modifications

of it, port it to new operating systems and processor architectures, share it with
others or, in some cases, even market it.

 Open source software is generally seen to be developed in a public and in a

collaborative manner.

 In this concept source published code since available to anyone and if has any
bug then, a good software developers eliminate bugs and make improvements
and then redistribute these modifications and it all happens much quicker than in
a commercial product.

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Committer
 Committers are the people who are deciding the quality standards or experts of
community.
 They are expected to control the process.
 Committers actually decide what changes, based on community experience; make it into
the originally licensed program.
 Users are still free to modify and distribute their changes. However, those changes don’t
always make it into the originally licensed version.

Governance
 The availability of open source software makes it easy for developers to make choices
without asking anyone.
 This could be a good strategy for an individual. However, on the corporate side one need
to look at technical and warranty support.

General Public License (GPL)

 General Public License can be defined as the most widely used software license, which
guarantees end users the freedoms to use, study, share, and modify the software.
 Software under the GPL license may be used for all purposes including commercial
purposes and even as a tool for creating proprietary software.
 Whenever source code is required to be modified in private or for the internal usage with
having no intentions of sales or distribution over the WEB then, no GPL is required.
 However, for sales or distribution, the source code and any code changes need to be made
available to end users in such a case GPL is applied to ensure that end user freedoms are
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 OPEN SOURCE ERP: LICENSES
1. Open Source License

 Open source ERP applications are released under a dual open source or
commercial licensing model, similar to that used by MySQL, JBoss, Asterisk
and many other open source projects.

 This is available as free software under proper general public licensing (GPL)
agreement and allow users to use, modify, and re-distribute the source code of
the software and publish.

2. Commercial License

 The commercial license allows user to take advantage of all the features of open
source ERP applications without the obligations of the open source licenses.

 End users can still access and modify the source code for their own
organization.

 Commercial licenses also include fees for the Professional support.

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 OPEN SOURCE ERP: BENEFITS
 Easy to acquire because they require no upfront investment.

 Easy to implement because the solution can be used with a wide range of
hardware platforms, operating systems, databases and browsers.

 Easy to adapt and customize because of a revolutionary model-based

application platform that speeds and simplifies development and customization

 Transparency of the open source code development is maintained and

knowledge is constantly shared about the applications.

 Open source community is very strong and has maintained the standards of the
coding which is available to the customer. This has achieved the reliability of
the application.

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 OPEN SOURCE MARKET PLAYERS (SELECT LIST)

SN Open Source Vendor Product

1 Consona Inc, USA Compiere

Web Notes Technologies

2 ERPNext
Pvt Ltd

3 Openbravo ERP Openbravo ERP

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