Just a few years ago, the cloud was becoming popular for edge-of-enterprise services, but today more manufactures than ever before are embracing it for core functions, from accounting to inventory management system software. According to Forbes, this is a sign of the serious nature of cloud integration.

Despite this growing adoption, many cloud-based manufacturing software systems are in early stages. Companies are making initial forays into cloud solutions and ERP as a Service, but the speed of this integration rate is what has some experts anticipating a complete migration in the near future.

"When it comes to cloud ERP, we are definitely seeing a lot more use cases being available, and fundamentally we are seeing a lot more desire from the end user community to take on cloud ERP as an entirely complete solution, or as discreet bits of functionality," said Chris Pang, an analyst with Gartner, according to the news source.

A recent study by Unisphere Research found that 39 percent of firms are already deploying cloud solutions to handle their business accounting systems, while 40 percent have moved their human resources solutions to the cloud as well. About 13 percent have moved supply chain management and demand planning to private cloud solutions.

Pang noted that this movement to the cloud isn't localized to larger enterprises either, but manufacturers of all sizes, up the "slope of enlightenment," as he put it.

While these adoption trends are already in full swing, it is important for firms to ensure they are investing in the right manufacturing ERP software for their needs. These tools will need to support cloud integration while taking advantage of the flexibility and scalability of cloud platforms.