"A penny saved is a penny earned," but how do you know you have really saved a penny? Often saving money initially means more work or a higher total cost of ownership, offsetting any benefit. 

A common example of hardware that can cost more is that inexpensive printer. When you buy an inexpensive printer that has expensive toner/ink cartridges and a low yield, you can pay double or triple per sheet.  Also, purchasing a low-end laptop, desktop, tablet can seem like a bargain, but then adding RAM or hard drive can wipe-out any savings.  For some electronics, you may not be able to upgrade and will be left having to buy a new device.

For software and applications, sometimes a low or free entry cost means that you have a great deal of customization that cannot be saved when upgrading to a new version or migrating to a new platform.  In many cases, it is hard to know that you have chosen an expensive option before making the commitment.

Below are a few Cloud products that we use that have passed the "save money and add efficiency" test.

Cloud Based Fax Service - We were so frustrated with getting unsolicited faxes that consumed the toner and paper on our fax machine and as an IT company we should always embrace new technology, so we looked for a online fax solution. We needed faxes to be received by multiple emails, a portal to easily send/receive and the ability to keep our fax number. One prerequisite is that you have a good scanner so that you can convert paper documents, we have several.

We chose Nextiva Fax - http://www.nextivafax.com. Our service costs less than $60 per year and they ported our number with no additional charge.  It is so easy to send/receive faxes and we saved not only on the fax machine and supplies but were able to get rid of the fax line. Total savings of over $500 a year.