It is evident that technology now has a significant impact on business, and so does cloud computing. In this fast-paced digital world, cloud computing has revolutionized industries and has become the cornerstone for a company’s digital transformation.
The cloud holds great potential in this era because of its agility and provides features, tools, and easy access. Here are some notable stats showcasing its increasing popularity and proving it as a key ingredient for the success of any business.
Simply put, cloud computing implies preserving, accessing, and handling data and applications over the Internet “the cloud” for increased productivity and better monetary value. Also, you don’t have to manage the hardware.
These types and services have evolved with the right solutions to cater to your needs.
Cloud computing services fall into three categories:
1. (IaaS)-Infrastructure as a service
2. (PaaS)- Platform as a service
3. (SaaS)- Software as a service
These services are known as “stack” as they build on top of one another. Knowing them with their differences makes it easier to make a decision as per your businesses’ needs.
Along with benefits, it comes with a set of challenges that are indeed unavoidable but manageable. With its increased popularity and demand for the cloud, associated risks need to be catered to well in advance.
Understanding the challenges with Cloud Computing
Data Security & Privacy
Data security and privacy were and are a matter of concern for cloud computing and can be reduced by using encrypted file systems and security applications.
The most significant data security issues for the cloud are mysterious threats such as hacking of your site by any malware attack. Data violation and lack of security measures can create havoc on end-users, if not handled properly. You need to ensure that the security measures in place for your cloud stack as this can be a real money-losing problem for your business.
Lack of resources
Lack of resources and expertise is one of the major challenges the cloud industry faces, as not every company has enough understanding of it. It is challenging to select the right cloud for the right direction.
Cloud providers differ depending on your needs, and there is a high possibility of going for the wrong cloud service provider if you are not aware of the differences.
Hiring skilled, certified employees in cloud computing will help reduce the challenges and provide training to the existing staff to make them more productive using the most innovative cloud computing services IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS. Experienced consultants with knowledge of the latest products and services in technology can bring more value to the business.
Management of Multi-Cloud Environment
With increasing options in cloud solutions, the companies are adopting multiple cloud strategies. According to research, 93% of enterprises adopt a multi-cloud strategy, whereas 87% opt for a hybrid one. It brings along numerous service providers and plugs them all into one organization.
Besides the undeniable benefits, it can be challenging to implement. For effective multi-cloud management, businesses need applications that can move across environments without integration issues. Experts recommend best practices such as thorough research, training of employees, and rethinking processes and tools to overcome this challenge.
Data Integration
Data integration is merging data from different sources to gain a unified and more valuable view. With this process, businesses can make faster and better decisions.
Companies with hybrid cloud environments face more data integration challenges between the on-premise apps and tools and public cloud for working together.
The complications are due to the compatibility between the configurations of the system and cloud and are more time-consuming. According to findings, 70% of digital transformation projects fail due to a lack of integration quality.
Governance
Next on our list is Governance which is a control framework to manage cost, improve efficiency, and most of all the security. Creating a comprehensive framework is a big challenge as it requires team collaborations to ensure that the assets used to implement cloud services are used according to agreed policies and dedicated procedures.
Organizations need to automate policies as that not only helps protect the organization’s assets from attacks but brings order, especially when the architecture is hybrid, multi-vendor, or has high compliance requirements. It is a big challenge for businesses today and requires expert advice when one is new to the cloud.
Compliance
One of the critical risks that cloud computing faces is compliance. It is a problem for everyone using cloud storage. Whenever a company moves data from internal storage to the cloud, it experiences compliance with industry regulations and laws.
An exciting law aspect of (GDPR) is that it will facilitate compliance in the future. Many organizations need to employ data protection professionals to foresee data security and privacy as law requirements. As the professionals are familiar with the compliance requirements for the companies they work for, focusing on compliance will help companies meet any legal obligations and avoid trouble.
Cloud Migration
One of the leading cloud computing industry challenges is migration i-e moving an application to a cloud in recent years. Releasing a cloud-native application is simpler than transferring an existing application to a cloud computing environment.
Companies moving large quantities of data face issues like slow data migrations, security challenges in cloud computing, extensive troubleshooting, or application downtime. Successful cloud implementation requires rigorous end-to-end planning. As the cloud environments are dynamic, the rapid change in costs for adopting new services is a challenge from the economic point of view.
Downtime
Downtime is a crucial shortcoming of cloud technology. A platform that is free of possible downtime is hard to find. Businesses moving to the cloud are dependent on the service providers so is their performance.
When your business applications move to a cloud, your business performance depends on the provider as well. Investing in a trustworthy cloud service provider is one of the significant challenges a company faces.
Before investment, be cautious about choosing the provider and look for the ones who are reliable and work with innovative technologies. As the performance is interlinked, it is recommended to investigate protocols to mitigate issues that arise in real-time and have plans to supervise SLA’s performance.
Despite the challenges – it is still a win-win
It is no secret; cloud computing is a good solution for many businesses and has revolutionized the IT sector. The benefits of utilizing the cloud are great for small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who are unable to afford costly server maintenance in their initial stages.
If the challenges are adequately addressed, these issues don’t mean your IT roadmap has to remain anchored on-premise. To overcome problems, businesses should take a strategic iterative approach for its implementation. The cloud is an ideal match for Business applications, as it is an agile way to access them.
We at Genetech have high-performance, scalable hosting solutions for your growing IT needs, along with security and reliability according to your requirements.
We hope it was a good read! Please reach out to us for any follow-up questions and we would be more than happy to help.
