1. The cloud vendor handles all of the infrastructure upgrades. 

Here are all the things you need to do update your infrastructure when upgrading your multi-tenant cloud application . . . . . . . . . . . . . {crickets chirping}. Everything related to the technology stack is handled by your cloud vendor. You no longer need to worry about databases, app servers, Web servers, etc. ever again. (Yeah!) 
 

2. The cloud vendor simplifies the mechanics of the upgrade. 

A month before the upgrade, the cloud vendor provides you with release notes and an upgraded test copy of your application. Your job is to test and determine what new features you want to use. One customer said the experience of upgrading his cloud application was pretty eye opening compared to his experience with on-premise ERP upgrades. He pulled a group of his colleagues into a conference room for a couple of days, did some regression testing, and evaluated the new features. Two weeks later, the cloud vendor upgraded his production instance overnight. That was it...minimal cost, very little to no risk, and two days in a conference room. It was a non-event, just like these upgrades and updates should be.
 

3. Upgrades are frequent. 

With cloud solutions, all customers are on the same version of the software. This allows the vendor to create multiple releases per year (vs. one release every three to four years in on-premise solutions). It also means your vendor can innovate and respond to changing market dynamics much quicker than their on-premise cousins. During one upgrade, one of my clients actually asked “is this the latest version of the software?” It was, but the latest version of the software was designed and developed three years ago and was already out of date.
 

4. Upgrades are full of new features. 

Most multi-tenant cloud providers have a “voting process” or “brainstorms” where customers greatly influence the product roadmap. This allows customers great insight (and influence) to what is coming in the next release. Each release has updates, fixes and new features that you can implement at your convenience. Your multi-tenant cloud vendor can deliver rich features that react to changes in technology (e.g. mobile, predictive analytics), business (e.g. new revenue recognition rules), and customer requests.