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Do you need to replace some of your technology or maybe select new solutions? If you answered yes, then you must at least consider how you will gear up for the cloud in two to five years’ time.

Technology is becoming more and more mission critical in our businesses and the investment in both time and money is not decreasing, so to be responsible, you must choose new technology solutions with the future in mind.

So here are a few points that I would consider:

• Cast your net wide – I would prepare a detailed list of all the functionality that I require and then invite as many as possible solution providers to indicate which functionality their solution will support with a simple yes, no or partial answer.
• Product roadmap – I would request a formal product roadmap from the solutions that will support most of the required functionality. I would specifically ask them to explain their cloud roadmap as well.
• Licensing models – I would also request that they provide a detail licencing model with a specific reference to subscription licensing, SaaS and Third party hosted models.

Should your environment not allow you to move all your technology to the cloud, my recommendation would be to select a solution with a clear product roadmap which includes a cloud offering, but that will also allow you to use it on-premises until such time as your environment does allow you to move to the cloud.