Philly’s top 10 cloud computing apps according to Evolve IP

One of the worst-kept secrets in the business world is the slow migration to the “cloud.”
That is, applications hosted on the web rather than on a desktop. For example, Gmail is email in the could, Salesforce is sales software hosted in the cloud. Unlike most other new trends in business, this one is actually being led by the big guys.
“What makes the cloud different than most disruptive technologies is that there isn’t widespread adoption among small businesses,” says Bill Jefferis, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development at Evolve IPEvolve IP. The Wayne-based company – who we profiled last year – earns its living by hosting applications and telephony for businesses.
However, now small business are beginning to catch up and spend the time and effort to migrate data to the cloud.
“Most people are thinking about it,” he says, “but not everyone’s doing it.”
Because the company has two local data centers and a mostly local customer base, Evolve IP is in a unique position to let us know what are the trends in Philly’s cloud computer preferences.
So, as interest in cloud applications continues to rise, we asked the smart guys at Evolve IP: What are the top 10 cloud applications hosted on its servers?
The answers (in no particular order) after the jump.

10. Payment Systems
Example: American Express, AcceptPay
9. Human Resource Management Systems
Example: InfinityHR
8. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) systems
Example: Salesforce.com
7. Learning Management Systems
Example: Skillsoft
6. Data Back Up & Recovery
Example: Mozy
5. Email & Calendaring
Examples: Microsoft Exchange and Calendaring, Google Email and Calendaring
4. Hosted PBX (VoIP)
Example: Broadsoft
3. Storage as a Service
Example: EMC
2. Colocation of Servers
Example: Dell, IBM, HP
1. VMWare/Virtual Machine Hosting
Example: VMWare
Jefferis says his company collects the data in three ways: from his sales staff, customer requests and by analyzing server metrics.