Does a cloud-based WMS make sense for your Microsoft Dynamics ERP?

Hosting critical business software in the cloud has become increasingly popular for Microsoft Dynamics ERP users. But what is different about a cloud-based deployment for a warehouse management system (WMS)?

This article explores the cloud's significance, benefits, and the concerns it raises in the context of managing your warehouses - especially around security and compliance.

The significance of cloud

The cloud is nothing new, yet it is still not a standard deployment method for WMS software. It is, however, a critical option to consider

A cloud deployment can be done a number of ways, including offering a WMS as software as a service (SaaS) or from a private cloud.  With a SaaS model, you share the environment with other customers of the cloud vendor.  Amount of sharing will vary and can include CPU, memory, or disk.  With a private cloud, you do not share resources.  Considering the transactional nature of the WMS and the need to dedicate the WMS resource workload, a private cloud normally works best.

With the public cloud, WMS software is installed on the cloud vendor's servers and is easily deployed to resources across the network. Hardware will eventually fail. The cloud acts as a safety net between the software and the hardware. Should an issue arise, the WMS can be moved to another set of servers with no disruption. Building on this, you always have access the latest and greatest hardware, as this is core to the vendor's business. Furthermore, many cloud providers offer an estimate of the appropriate Recovery Point Objective (RPO) - the potential of how much data will be lost - and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) - how long it will take to get back up and running. Every operations executive knows ...