The other day, we talked about the three drivers that are changing what, not so many years ago, some people believed was a static market with clear leaders and winners. Yes, I’m talking about PMS’ market, Touristologists!
If you remember, in the previous post we reviewed the first driver: The slow transformation from a PMS to a CVMS. In a nutshell…If you want to provide services before, during and after a trip, it’s compulsory to make all departments and members of the chain of value work as a single organization. In order to do that you will need software to help you to manage not only your property but also the whole chain of value!
The second driver in PMS’ evolution from Touristology point of view is cloud computing. Here you can review some lingo related to cloud computing: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, etc
The advantages that cloud computing brings to any company are well known and we can summarized with this sentence: Cloud computing allows small and medium size enterprises to be as productive as big enterprises, because it brings to them...
1) The possibility to pass from strong investment and fix cost to a variable cost. This is true for both the creators of the software and the users of it. In the case of PMS, cloud computing allows the users (the owner of the lodging enterprise) to pay per room on a per month basis. 5$ seems to be the new standard. On the other hand, it also allows the creators of the software to make a deal with cloud service providers (AWS, GAE, Azure, OpenShift….) and pay by use.
2) Elasticity: You get all the power that you need when you need it. Is there a better definition of the word SCALABILITY? Do you foresee a high season ahead? Don’t worry you can increase the number of users your web site can manage (for instance, from 1,000 to 1,000,000) in just minutes not months.
3) Machine Automatization: You can set up your cloud programmatically. I mean that you can, for example, define thresholds based on variables of consumption (CPU consumption) or define a specific period of time (every Monday at 12:00:00). That makes the management of your hardware faster and less error prone!
Here you can see how I am able to set up an increase of the power of my AWS cloud server when I need and for the time that I needed:
When do I add a new instance? In this case, in function of CPU utilization. As you can see if the average it’s up to 80% add a new instance. If the average it’s down 50% rest an instance. As I said, a real programmable data center. Faster and NOT error prone!
BUT there is also the other side of the coin that, (not without reasons), arouse fears, uncertainties and doubts.
Are you sure about the privacy of your data? At the end of the day, it is saved in another company and you have to remember that, clearly, we are talking about very sensitive data. Your customers’ data: Personal data, buying behavior….
You have to think about the pros and cons and make up your mind! At the end of the day, it’s just a matter of trust! Ummm… something valuable that you choose to save NOT at home? Where do you save your money? At home?
Here you can enjoy two videos of new players in the PMS field.
Apart from the heavy use of cloud computing they are also examples of the third driver in PMS’ evolution… But these will be the subject of another post… See you in the cloud Touristologists!!! Keep your privacy at bay and enjoy the benefits of cloud computing!
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