Cloud computing is really big. Not a day goes by without some article or tweet talking about the advantages of running your applications somewhere else. Truth is that I cannot think what life was like prior to Dropbox. So I suppose it makes sense to use services that are shared and where one can tap into the economies of scale.It is interesting that many small companies that I know still run their own ERP systems. Deployed behind their firewalls and specifically customised for your unique requirements, these systems are one instance of the software running on dedicated equipment. Surely it would make much more sense to move all this repetitive work onto a shared service?
We have a number of customers that started mobile money on shared solutions - software deployed on shared infrastructure (a hub) and then moved off it to install their own dedicated deployment. Why would they do this when it is clearly a more expensive alternative. The answer is purely a function of uniqueness. The more unique and different your requirements are, the more likely it is that you would rather deploy your own dedicated enterprise solution... managed by yourself and configured to meet your unique needs.
To what degree is it possible to offer a managed service for mobile money that is generic enough to solve most of the problems? That is the question.
