Cloud computing eliminates the need for individual companies to buy, deploy and maintain IT infrastructure or application software. In the cloud computing model (also known as software-as-aservice, or SaaS), the vendor takes responsibility for deploying and managing the infrastructure (servers, operating system software, databases, data center space, network access, power and cooling, etc.) and processes (infrastructure patches/upgrades, application patches/upgrades, backups, etc.) required to run and manage the full solution.

Because cloud vendors manage all of their customers on a single instance of the software, they can amortize infrastructure-related costs over thousands of customers. This results in substantial economies of scale and skill, reducing the total cost of ownership (TCO) for customers who deploy business management solutions.