Techblog
The 4 fears of cloud adoption by businesses
Heard about the four fears of cloud adoption? Read on and find out why we are only scratching the surface of cloud adoption.
The hype about cloud computing is such that you can be forgiven for thinking that cloud adoption is universal. The truth is somewhat different! Despite the hype and the column inches dedicated to cloud computing, we are only scratching the surface of cloud adoption.
Currently, the majority of corporate cloud adoption is around Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Things like Office 365 and Salesforce.com are prime examples of SaaS. This is to be expected as buy-in can be very cheap with implementation totally separate from the rest of corporate IT.
However, the real promise of cloud is much more than SaaS. Cloud is a transformative technology where the norm will be to move computing power and infrastructure between on-premise resources, private cloud and public cloud. However, we are not there yet with many IT managers expressing doubt and nervousness about moving their on-premise computing into the cloud.
There are basically four common fears of cloud adoption that occur most often in cloud:
#1 Security
Security is the number one fear we hear when people express reticence to move to cloud. This is entirely understandable, and directly related to the feeling of letting go. Essentially you are placing your company’s most valuable asset, that is, your data in the hands of an “unknown” party. In the case of public cloud, there is the added worry that it may be on a shared physical resource. When it comes to security concerns of cloud adoption though, the reality is that cloud providers often have more resource and knowledge of security than the most well staffed IT departments. Even consumer-grade public cloud can have stronger security than the average SME IT department. When you partner reputable providers that offer enterprise-grade cloud services, the security of your data and infrastructure is strengthened rather than compromised.
That said, the same rules still apply. As with on-premise IT, it makes sense to use the services of an external security tester. This good practice should remain in place even with the most secure cloud hosted services.
#2 Service provider tie-in
The economic, contractual and competitive nature of cloud services is such that tie-in is just not part of the vocabulary. It’s about making your service provider part of your infrastructure strategy.
As companies look at hybrid systems, integrate mission critical applications and highly sensitive data into cloud-based architectures, an element of “tie-in does materialise”.
However, this is not a contractual or technical tie-in that people have experienced in the past with outsourcing or proprietary systems. Rather, it is a healthy tie-in based on a deepening partnership. Knowledge of your cloud service provider, their support capability, their billing options and their functional capabilities are all learned and that learning curve is difficult to walk away from.
#3 Spiralling usage bills
One of the benefits of cloud is the ability to avoid upfront capital costs and paying for computing resources on a “pay per use” model. However, be aware that there can be some nightmarish bills if you do not understand your cloud provider’s billing mechanisms.
The major problem with billing tends to be with public cloud and self-service consumption. If users do not take time to fully understand how public cloud usage and charges are calculated, you may find yourself with large wads of bills for consumption you did not even know you were making.
The reality is when done right, public cloud and hybrid cloud should make sound economic sense and bills can be predictable and well controlled.
In general, there are two rules of thumb to live by:
- Cloud computing and infrastructure costs less even though it costs more!
- On-demand is always more efficient than forecasting.
These rules emphasise that if you switch off your cloud services when they are not in use, you will save money; and that trying to forecast required capacity for on premise IT usually means you have to buy excess capacity that you may not use for years, if at all.
#4 Losing control
Usually a feeling or emotional response rather than a reality, moving to cloud does not mean a loss of control over what is important, namely, the IT services and applications you deliver to the business.
Rather, it is “letting go” of the underlying technology on which these services and applications run. This becomes less important and gives IT the ability to become far more aligned to the business.
This sense of “loss of control” can come from not owning the technology. It doesn’t help that cloud providers don’t typically reveal their underlying technology when they sell you a service plan. It is important to work with a trusted service provider who can provide defined performance metrics, so that you can focus on achieving business outcomes, and not worry about the technology.
For example, many businesses go through a journey where they move from a feeling of loss to one of having greater control over the applications they provide to the business. Letting go of “keeping the lights on” actually frees up time to improve quality of service to the business.
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