Inside the noise of enthusiasts and cloud computing crusaders that the cloud allows you to do this and that cloud computing initiatives are challenging for many organizations. It is not as easy as some people say it.
Here are a few snags that you can hit in your cloud efforts:
- Too many expectations
Due to so much hype, many organizations get too excited about what the cloud can do. A study by Aptum reports that 99% of the respondents found the cloud as crucial to their overall success. Most of the respondents stated that technology is crucial for their business continuity. The coronavirus pandemic has made many organizations shift their operations to the cloud as they discovered the importance of this technology on collaboration. Although it is true that cloud spurs collaboration, enhances creativity, agility, business continuity, and saves the cost of operations, the anticipated benefits do not always meet the expectations. Some organizations end up reaping less than what they expected. Only a few of these organizations end up benefiting, while the excitement of others will be short-lived.
- Security issues
Security has always been one of the areas of concern for organizations. Although lack of expertise is equally critical, there has always been a hot debate around data security. Since 2018, security has been one of the biggest snags in the implementation of the cloud. Like anything connected to the internet, it is no longer about if but when your organization will suffer from data breaches or cyberattacks. Storing data in the cloud means that you will no longer see where your information is stored or processed. With this in mind, always have contingencies to ensure business continuity even when you face cyberattacks.
- Managing and containing costs
The next snag that you are likely to encounter in your cloud efforts involves costs. In most instances, migrating to the cloud can save your organization money in the long run. It allows you to easily ramp up processing capabilities without investing in modern expensive data centers. Businesses can access on-demand pay-as-you-go services from public cloud providers. While these services are flexible, you may face challenges in defining and predicting services required and their costs. Although the costs may be low initially, they may spiral as you find out other hidden costs you never factored in. Fortunately, there are many ways you can consider to keep your costs in check. For example, you can conduct financial analytics and regular reporting and enforce policies that govern your expenditure.
- Migration issues
Migration is one of the biggest cloud computing challenges you are likely to face in your cloud initiatives. Although migrating applications is a straightforward process, many challenges may come up when moving an existing application. This is one of the problems you must factor in when thinking about your organization's cloud initiative.
Clearly, if you plan to migrate to the cloud, you have some issues that you must think about for success to be attained. Cloud is not something that you think about overnight and implement. Rather, you need a strategic approach, proper management, and professionals' involvement that will help reduce possible risks, flaws, or high costs.