"Prepare for Tomorrow, Today." That was a major theme at last month's Modern Finance Experience, running through a number of sessions-including one presented by my colleague, John Killen, as he spoke to a packed audience about the basics of cloud.

John started off by defining what exactly we mean by 'cloud' and finished by making a compelling case for why organizations need software as a service (SaaS) in order to stay ahead of the competition.

First, let's take a look at the common ERP deployment models we typically see today.