Cloud Computing …Why Not? (week 5)

I believe most technically savvy individuals are aware of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Salesforce or even Google Cloud (part of Alphabet). A commonality with all these companies, apart from the fact that they are in almost every aspect of our lives, is their cloud services. If you love to binge on Netflix shows like I do (please watch Narcos or House of Cards if you haven’t…Netflix original classics), then you should know that all those shows you love have to be stored on someone’s servers and when you ‘demand’ them, they will need to be 'served up' to you without any interruptions. Well, the ‘cloud’ makes all this possible. We will define the cloud as simply assets (i.e. infrastructure, platform, software) on someone else’s servers and premises other than yours. For this blog, I won’t talk about how wonderful the cloud is but we will approach it from this point of view:

-- Its late Friday afternoon (of course 😠), your boss walks over to your cube and anoints you the devil’s advocate. “John Doe, your weekend assignment is to come up with reasons why we should not join the cloud bandwagon. And at that, please remember to enjoy your weekend!”

No need for panic, this blogger has your back …read on

These 7 reasons should be enough to get your boss thinking

Security (cloud security) – this barrier is one of the top concerns for most businesses. Some questions to ask are: How do I secure my data in the cloud? What security measures are in place? Depending on the sensitivity and value of the data to be stored in the cloud, some businesses may not be comfortable adopting cloud computing. In-house computing ensures you have total control of all your data, whether that data is safe(er), is a story for another day; focus here is on total control of your data.

Privacy (Trusting the cloud) – with the ever-growing competitive business-world, no business wants to expose their ‘secret sauce’ to their competitors. With cloud computing, if due diligence is not done, a business may end up with a cloud provider who’s not very reliable when it comes to privacy concerns.

Independence from CSPs – most Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) prefer to lock in their customers through contracts and if there’s a need to move services to another provider, the exercise is sometimes stressful, especially with inter-operability issues amongst cloud providers.

Economic Values (Return on investment) – this in my opinion is the most heavily weighted barrier of all from a business standpoint. All businesses regardless of size, type or location are in it to make money (excluding the not-for-profit ones which actually still make money). Before migrating to the cloud, a business needs to ask whether it makes economic sense. Is the venture going to save the business money or add extra costs? The return on investments need to be analyzed and presented to the decision makers. Most business will only adopt cloud computing if it makes economic sense.

Inter-operability – most cloud infrastructure and applications are current and advanced but this is not always the case for businesses that want to integrate their infrastructure with the cloud. When you have inter-operability issues, this may mean adopting other services for example IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS even though the initial intent was to only buy one service model. You should ask yourself, is my business compatible with the cloud provider’s?

IT Governance – IT governance determines the direction that the business will take. If cloud computing is not part of the governance plan, then cloud migration may be hindered.

Political issues Due to Global Boundaries – For cloud computing to be successful, there needs to be no borders or jurisdictions. The goal for cloud computing is to enable fast and easy access to resources regardless of the user’s location. Some businesses may be reluctant to adopt cloud computing especially if the provider is geographically located in different countries. A European company for example may be skeptical or fearful of subscribing to Amazon given it operates under U.S. jurisdiction. Also, some European laws may dictate that certain data or information should not be transmitted across its borders. So, the question here is, what laws or regulation requirements bind you as a company?

And there you have it. I hope this information made your task easier. Go forth and conquer now and thank you for reading. 

References

Arellano, N. E. (2015, March 6). Top 5 cloud barriers for most businesses.
     Retrieved June 24, 2016, from IT World Canada website:
     http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/top-5-cloud-barriers-for-most-businesses/
     177871 

Mather, T., Kumaraswamy, S., & Latif, S. (2009). Cloud security and privacy.
     Beijing: O'Reilly. 

Rodrigues, T. (2012, October 1). Unseen barriers to cloud adoption. Retrieved
     June 24, 2016, from TechRepublic website: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/
     the-enterprise-cloud/unseen-barriers-to-cloud-adoption/