7 Myths About Cloud Fundraising

Myth 4: The cloud costs more in the long run
This really depends on how you utilize the cloud vs. how you currently or used to manage your data. The greatest benefit of the cloud, according to Fisk, is that it allows you to focus your resources and energies on your mission, not on IT. Factoring in the costs of buying and maintaining servers, upgrades, power consumption, etc., the cloud can cost much less over time if utilized efficiently, Fisk says.

Myth 5: It's on the Internet, so it will be slow
Internet connections are faster and more reliable while the servers in the data centers are more powerful and able to crunch the numbers more quickly, Fisk says. You can also "borrow" power on demand in the cloud. As long as it's a true cloud application, performance should not be a problem.

Myth 6: Beware the cloud wash
Not all "cloud" solutions are truly cloud solutions — they just move data to a different server. Cloud usually involves virtualized servers, transparent infrastructure, multi-tenanted applications and contractually managed solutions, Fisk says.

Myth 7: It's just a passing fad
We all know how rapidly technology evolves, so perhaps cloud computing won't be around forever, Fisk says. But cloud computing is the next step in database management, and it has become a staple because it's generally a better investment than the old practice of managing your database on internal servers.

The tide is turning toward cloud-based solutions, and it can make a difference for fundraisers. True cloud solutions can provide technology, economic and business benefits over the traditional on-premise solutions, says Fisk. Here are four major benefits for fundraisers, according to Fisk.

To learn more about clouding fundraising, listen to this free Fast15 here.