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Back in the early 1960s, Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider dreamed of an “Intergalactic Computer Network.” Lick, as he was known, was a computer scientist, psychologist and all-round genius who helped to develop the ARPANET. His work was crucial in establishing the internet as we know it today, as well as cloud computing.

Cloud computing has been with us for around two decades. Early pioneers include Salesforce, who popularized Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) back in 1999 — and grew a global enterprise as a result. Despite the cloud’s many advantages, adoption has been relatively slow. To be more accurate, many companies were happy to use SaaS services like Salesforce, but were initially reluctant to move their enterprise applications to the cloud.

That has changed — and is continuing to change. Gartner forecasts that the global public cloud services market will grow 17.3 percent this year to a total of $206.2 billion. That is a significant jump from $175.8 billion in 2018. Gartner expects this trend to continue and predicts that this will increase to $278.3 billion in 2021.

Global Trade, Transportation and Logistics in the Cloud

In the last five years or so, businesses around the world have increasingly moved their enterprise applications, platforms and infrastructure to the cloud — including, of course, critical business systems such as ERP.

There are tangible benefits to making the move to the cloud. These include scalability, faster deployment, reduced maintenance and IT costs and reduced capital expenses. In addition, when you use a cloud solution you have a built-in disaster recovery plan. The cloud also offers significant advantages for global trade, transportation and logistics.

Real-time Updates to Trade Content
One major advantage of using a cloud-based trade and transportation execution solution is that you have ongoing and real-time updates to trade compliance regulations. A cloud-based shipping logistics platform helps you avoid compliance missteps and costly penalties.

In 2017, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) convicted 31 individuals and businesses on criminal charges. This resulted in $287,102,532 in criminal fines; $166,234,123 in forfeitures; and 576 months of imprisonment. In the same year, BIS also imposed $692,296,500 million in administrative penalties.

Easy, Automatic Roll-out
For large shippers with multiple locations, on-premise rollouts and updates are often time-consuming and complicated. With a cloud deployment, however, all facilities and teams can receive new features and updates simultaneously. Adding new applications, scaling back capacity or even adding or subtracting users is quick and easy. That means no communications downtime between facilities and no need for intricate planning.

Reduced Maintenance and IT Costs
With a cloud-based solution, your provider is responsible for hardware maintenance and upgrades. If and when infrastructure needs to be updated, it’s invisible to your organization and your finance department.

Rapid ROI
Last but not least is return on investment. Because deployment of cloud architecture is much faster than on-premise, return on investment is realized much quicker. In addition, your provider is responsible for hardware maintenance and upgrades too. As a result, when infrastructure is updated, it’s invisible to your IT organization — and your finance department.

Finding the Right Technology Partner

QAD Precision provides global trade management, transportation execution and multi-carrier shipping software solutions from a single, integrated platform. An ISO-certified company, QAD Precision assists companies to minimize shipping costs, optimize first and last mile deliveries, automate free trade agreement compliance, avoid customs delays and mitigate the risks associated with dynamic trading environments to maximize their competitive advantage.

QAD Precision’s integrated cloud services provide growth-minded organizations with the ability to move capital expenses to operational expenses while requiring less maintenance and automatic upgrades. Customers moving to cloud technology eliminate the need for IT and hardware resources while moving their information to a secure, private cloud environment. Our cloud services also provide your organization with the newest application features, propelling you forward and enabling you to build the effective enterprise.

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