Hi Thoran: Thanks for sharing this insight into Cloud developments over the past year. You bring up key issues, including reliability, cost and security.
It's been our experience teaming with our manufacturing clients that its wise for organizations to analyze their specific situation carefully, taking time to look critically at the vendor's SLA - Service Level Agreement. In the case of Cloud ERP solutions, it is certainly more cost-effective up front due in part to the low cost of entry, but monthly fees might add up to be substantially more expensive than a traditional on-premise solution over the long term due to the vendors recurring revenue model. Some Cloud vendors tend to over-inflate the costs of in house IT while on-premise vendors underestimate these costs. Additionally, there is nothing to keep a SaaS vendor from increasing the monthly fees down the road unless specifically noted in the contracts. The possession of data is another area that requires additional scrutiny. Once again, a careful and thorough analysis is key.
We look deeper into these issues here
http://www.ultraconsultants.com/is-saas-erp-really-a-good-investment/ 
