Along with the growing cloud-computing hype is growing push back along the lines that cloud-computing is merely a new way for vendors to pitch the same offerings wrapped up in the latest buzzword. Shally Steckerl, a recruiting strategist and consultant, delivers a blistering post along these lines on ERE.net.
It is easy to sympathize with Shalley and other users of HR services who see new buzzwords advance in vendor marketing campaigns often at a pace more rapid than functional improvements or efficiencies evident in the vendor offerings themselves. However, vendor marketing hype aside, cloud computing is (or should be), more than a re-branding of existing SAAS or ASP offerings.
As I mentioned in my previously post, there isn't unanimity about what cloud computing is. However, most associate the phrase with an approach in which IT or business capabilities are accessed as services through publicly available (or readily available) Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). While HR abounds with SAAS providers, there aren't many that arguably fit the cloud model. Most HR service providers today simply don't have the well-defined APIs. There are companies that likely have a head start such as ADP Employease and Workday (links to API pages). However, contrary to what Shalley says in his rant and vendor hype aside, the cloud model is quite new and is distinct from mere SAAS and ASP offerings.
Another aspect of cloud computing that makes it different is the way data storage, access, and integration is handled. Today, much integration among HR systems is brute force replication and synchronization of data. In some ways, the proliferation of various best-of-breed SAAS offerings has simply increased the extent of data replication across systems.
In a full-blown version of cloud-computing for HR, employee and HR data would stay in place, perhaps even apart from any particular HR service provider. In this idealized version of HR cloud computing, data is integrated or (using the hip, programmable web vernacular) "mashed up" on an on-demand basis. This is a key difference from today's SAAS offerings. Cloud computing implies data that data is available from cloud-based data stores, which can be read, updated, subscribed to, and maintained by various authorized HR services -- enrollment, performance management, learning, compensation, etc. This doesn't mean that there would be a single HR cloud database for an employer's entire HR function. There likely would be a single cloud database for HR master data and separate stores for data owned or controlled by ecosphere partners. Examples of the latter might be competency content or candidate profile data.
Suffice it to say that the version of cloud computing introduced in the paragraphs above is not how HR services are provided today. Full-blown cloud-computing for HR is years away if realizable at all. Skepticism is warranted. However, it merits watching. End users should neither lump it in with SAAS and ASP offerings, nor tolerate loose claims from vendors related to providing services from the cloud.
While this is all very geeky tech stuff, I actually think many non-techie HR end-users have a growing appreciation for how cloud computing and the programmable web work. Consider the growing number of recruiters on twitter. Most of these recruiters know nothing about the twitter API other than that twitter has an API. They know it exists and it works because it is well evidenced by a growing number of third-party services and applications that the recruiters themselves use (e.g., ping.fm, TweetDeck, twitterfeed, etc). My point is that rather than just ranting about the latest vendor hype over cloud computing, ask questions. When vendors hype cloud computing ask them show you that APIs exist and where they live. Have them show you the reference implementations that evidence the value and utility of the APIs. Ask them how their vision of cloud computing enhances (opens up) collaboration with ecosphere partners.
