Is a server-less IT strategy possible in the mid-market / enterprise space? Can an organization leverage SaaS and outsourced partners to effectively remove all premise-based IT? No one doubts the success of SaaS / ondemand applications for specific functions like CRM (Salesforce.com, Rightnow.com), Financial Modeling (Adaptive Planning), ERP (NetSuite, Plex), etc. But few mid-market and enterprise companies are attempting an entirely SaaS / ondemand strategy.
One of obsticals is file storage and management. As an IT Director, file storage and management is a crucial part of a healthy backup, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plan (BCP). Untill recently, I have not found a decent SaaS storage solution that could replace the local server or storage appliance. The ideal would be a solution similar to offline files and folders, the ability to sync local files and folders with a server or storage appliance. Getdropbox is one such solution that could replace the local server for file storage and sharing. I’m beta-testing www.getdropbox.com and it functions almost identically to offline files and folders. I drop files into a local directory and they are sync’d almost immediately. I loose my Internet connection or I’m on an airplane and I can access all my local files. When I come back online, the directories sync. Additionally, all my files are backed up in case my laptop fails or is stolen. Best of all – no servers are required. The solution is still in early stages of testing and presently you’re only allowed 2GB of storage but if this is any indication of what’s in our future we may one step closer to an entirely server-less IT solution.
Aric Bandy
