The Community Cloud: Are Microsoft Dynamics Customers Ready to Join?

As cloud computing continues to mature, the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, has become a popular software option for firms of all sizes and across all industries. A newer entrant to the cloud family - known simply as the "community cloud" - is now catching the eye of companies interested in connecting with business partners, vendors, customers, and even competitors via the Internet.

This idea of forming close ties and alliances across industries isn't new. Companies have been connecting with one another in the offline world - and via network-based, industry-focused buying and selling communities that formed during the dot-com era (and some of which eventually faded) - for decades. Now some of them are using the same concept in the cloud.

Software providers have already created cloud communities in areas that already impact some Microsoft Dynamics ERP customers, especially in the areas of sourcing/procurement and logistics.  And the concept is likely to expand across other industries and software packages in the near future - by logging into a network via the web and in some cases sending and receiving CSV files or interacting via electronic messaging to join the flow of business.

In his recent blog post, Is Community Cloud the Future of Logistics? Chris Jones of Descartes defined the community cloud as an entity that addresses "unique industry requirements, connects organizations with common business interests, leverages shared data, streamlines common business processes, allows organizations to create new shared business models, and is delivered through a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model."

Community cloud is industry focused, says Jones, versus enterprise or two-party ...