A majority of businesses have overcome the fear of operating daily in the cloud. Proof to support this statement is found in plans for the upcoming 2012 Cloud Connect conference this month. The main focus centered on working in the cloud, while last year’s conference was all about defining the cloud and what exactly it means. 

This Information Week report demonstrates that businesses are now navigating their way through the challenges of building cloud-based applications and handling increased data. The ability to rely on a solid cloud CRM is crucial to success and a number of speakers for the upcoming event plan to speak on the subject. 

This shift has everything to do with the orchestration of cloud CRM and the data center. Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Azure cloud is able to connect legacy mainframe data with an integrated flight data in real time. American Airlines has developed a Window’s mobile application that speeds up the process of obtaining flight status information. Cisco (News - Alert) Systems acknowledges that there are some obstacles to achieving specific multi-tenant services.

A Cisco speaker plans to address the complexity of virtual data centers and how to solve the idea of providing services for individual tenants on a multi-tenant platform. When users at the enterprise level want to access the virtual data center, an effective cloud CRM solution is needed to manage the individual services for an isolated portion of the larger network. 

Cisco is also working on future projects for cloud-based software. Open source code, as it relates to cloud CRM, is an alternative for virtual networks with the OpenStack.

The shift to the cloud has made good economic sense for many businesses when compared with their traditional on-premise data centers that were losing value and adding costs. But to truly understand the cloud and the potential hidden costs, users need to look at accessing their IT operations. Apptio is a company that helps with this process and evaluates all applications on individual cost models. 

Apptio believes it can put together an IT bill to completely cover all costs associated with services in the cloud, like cloud CRM.

When adding another application to the current business model, users need to fully understand their IT needs and how another system can affect their services. During acquisitions, businesses can often be bogged down, unable to address specific issues. This can greatly affect the end result, an effective cloud CRM. Having a consolidated solution on a single platform will create a smooth application for users.

If you’re searching for the latest in cloud CRM business intelligence, it may be time to investigate the potential to addend the 2012 Cloud Connect conference and learn how your business can benefit.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny