In the digital automation market, which includes workflow and business process automation, there are literally dozens of no-code or low-code platforms available as public cloud solutions. They range from products like Zapier to Tray.io. In general, they all provide easy-to-use interfaces for assembling cloud services together in order to automate processes. Some are geared towards individual users and some towards enterprise businesses. However, aside from the ones intended for individuals or very small businesses, they may require some significant setup, configuration, and administration.

Public cloud-based solutions have a number of advantages for process automation. You can sign up and get access to these services within minutes and have a new process up and running in a relatively short time.

However, the majority of these solutions operate by routing your data (and the subsequent responses) through a series of different cloud services. Not only is your process dependent on the continued existence of those cloud services, your sensitive business data is now fully exposed to each one and subject to a different set of legal terms and conditions for each service. If any of those services becomes inaccessible due to a variety of factors, you have a critical operational failure within your business. In addition, the security and privacy of your data is only as good as the weakest link in that service chain. That is why more and more companies are opting for private cloud or on-premises solutions.

This brings us to private cloud and on-premises solutions, which have certain key advantages over public cloud solutions:

• Data control
• Data privacy
• Data continuity
• Data security

Unfortunately, most private-cloud or on-premises solutions require significant effort to install, configure, and manage. Updates and new features often require significant planning and coordination to roll out properly. Together, these disadvantages serve to create a barrier to entry for all but the most determined companies.

But what if you found a private solution that has the same ease of deployment, updates, and usage found in public cloud solutions? Then this barrier to entry is significantly lessened.

iPhora Vision

This is our vision for iPhora, a radically new product that combines the ease of deployment, updates, and usage typically found in public cloud solutions with the data control, privacy, continuity, and security of private cloud/on-premise solutions.

In bringing the public cloud experience to your private environment, we focused on four areas:

• Product licensing
• Installation and configuration automation
• Simple one touch installation of applications and service connectors
• Seamless one touch updating and upgrading

The advent of public cloud computing has brought forward a new level of user expectation, not just in the design of the user interface, but also in the deployment and management of the solution. By bring the public cloud experience to your private environment, a key barrier to entry is eliminated, enabling companies to take advantage of the security and control offered by private cloud or on-premises solutions.