This actually exposed me to both sides of the coin. We first looked at a "Full" Cloud solution. There is a Provider out there that is teamed up with our major application vendor. Their second stated goal on their web site is "To reduce or eliminate your IT department", so yes I was researching myself out of a job, due to the Cloud. We did not go for it as it was VERY expensive (about $35K start up and $180K a year in fees with a 5 year commitment). Going to a Private Cloud cost us about $250K with about 50K in yearly costs. The big downside to all of this is... no Internet access NO WORK for people in the field (yes we have mobile hot spots). We have clients who have no internet access or are still on dial-up. The Cloud doesn't work everywhere and isn't as cheep as buying a few desktops and a server.