Cloud Computing: Risk Or Opportunity?

The cloud computing is one of the hottest topics discussed online. Some consider cloud services has become a fashion, but it is a superficial way to address the issue. Surely this is an option to consider when a company choose their work tools.

Cloud services can boast the support of a computer that has changed. In reality, the company uses today’s computer for every possible purpose. In fact, users have sparked the race to the cloud and to understand it, it is not difficult: We always want everything, at every place we are, whatever device we hold in our hand. In practice, we want resources to be available 24×7, and can be accessed from home computer as like laptop, even from tablet and smartphone without loss of efficiency.

A constant amount of data and information. More or less useful, more or less focused on the business of the company or on the privacy of individuals (ie, social networks or premium services and / or professional).

The advent of cloud increased the quality of services that are available via broadband or mobile (phones, smartphones and tablets). The available bandwidth is the enabling factor for a cloud service.

But choosing the cloud computing services represents a risk or an opportunity?

In this article, we will be only talking about the strengths and weaknesses, risks and opportunities from the use of cloud technologies.

Cloud Meets Your Needs?

Cloud computing is nothing but a set of solutions interacting among themselves. The peculiarity of these solutions is the lack of physical proximity between the technologies used to create and implement solutions. The cloud computing allows you to move outside of your local network (which can also be the one and only existing computer in a small company) or all of the functions you need.

An example? If you have an gmail account , you will almost certainly agree with the fact that notepad, word processor, calendar and email are all software that can reside on the cloud of Google. At least for me this is now natural. At home I do not have a mail server, but took advantage of the Google service. As I no longer have a desktop software to keep me order among customers and activities: exploited yet another service, much more powerful and I can use from different locations and with different devices (iPhone and iPad, MacBook and home desktop) and data always accessible and up to date regardless of location and / or device I use. All through a common browser and no matter what I choose (beyond personal preference). I need, of course, a good Internet connection, where “good” means inevitably the adjective fast (and reliable).

Here Are The Needs That Cloud Computing Meet :

Allows you to share information and data between devices in a totally transparent and simple and fast way;
Allows the integration of such information and data with other information and data that may come from other departments or from other external sources;
Ensures a greater pace of work certainly because the company and the professional can safely ignore aspects of infrastructure management that enables the use of the services themselves: just a device that connects to the Internet, a connection, a browser, or to Moreover, a small software client (such as an iOS app);
Provides Flexibility: Cloud services are highly flexible and easily scalable so the company or the professional are always ready to change, reducing effort and various problems.

We Will Return On These Four Points Shortly.

Meanwhile we try to understand what are the risks and opportunities arising from the adoption of cloud services.

Choose The Cloud: Opportunities

If you invest in the cloud, you would like to know the benefits of this investment. Technically speaking, the ROI ( Return On Investment ) of a possible choice in cloud. Just in recent months, I was confronted with the difficulty of presenting an offer to users who are accustomed to the old model of IT management: all mine, all at my house, no connection to the outside if you do not surf the Internet. Where the novelty of this millennium have made inroads (strange, but still real) is fundamental to explain well why adopting a cloud service.

As a first step to invest in the cloud, it allows you to almost completely eliminate the costs of IT infrastructure management. Licenses and consumption of servers and workstations, problems in training and staff appropriately recruited to manage the IT problems installing and updating and maintenance of the infrastructure are no longer a problem, because the whole is delegated to the provider of the service. As already mentioned, to use a cloud service, just a small software client or even the browser is sufficient. We may add in the list of opportunities, the ability to access functions of the corporate headquarters and on any device independently. Today an increasing number of managers and executives use smartphones and tablets to access all the functions before they preserve positions in the office.

A cloud system is really builds in a few simple steps, especially quickly. The deployment time is considerably lower than the homemade solution, with huge scalability. This makes the company more responsive to change. Add or delete functions is a simple reformulation of the offer purchased. Besides, many cloud services allow the customer (in this case the company or professional) to build your own service complying the real needs.

Choose The Cloud:  The Risks And Obstacles

We Come To The Downside…

If you customize your cloud offering, it allows to better predict costs and budget, it is also true that the cloud service is actually a cost to be renewed from year to year. And well, when you are buying a license of a product to be installed on your local network, you only need to pay once.

In case you have opted for a cloud service, attention to detail and in particular to SLA and performance. That is, the level of service, the terms of the contract and the actual performance checks. The cost must apply on the service purchased. In addition, the cloud models may suffer in the event of a change of the service already signed: the change of functions or limits can result in high costs.
Choose A Service: Migrate to another service provider can be very complicated and therefore expensive. Be a professional to evaluate what are the obstacles that may arise in case of change of provider.

The biggest obstacle in the adoption of a cloud service could then be represented by the infrastructure company or professional service required to be eligible for the same. In one concept: speed and quality of the network connection. Access to the Internet is utmost important, practically the enabler of cloud computing. Without a fast and reliable connection, all the benefits of a cloud system are immediately lost, to the detriment of the business to sustain.

If it disappear from the local network workstations and dedicated servers, and ad hoc entire infrastructure delegated to the provider outside the company, you need to take all the necessary precautions. The most important advice therefore concerns the possibility of installing more than one connection to the Internet, with different suppliers and different technologies. This will prevent the lack of service (if there is a drop in connection, you can always use the other one) and maybe you can develop techniques of shaping bandwidth for a better use of external services.

The last risk factor that we consider is related to privacy. There are cases, companies operating in critical areas, for example, where it is not really possible to migrate the data outside. This is obviously the critical data, and especially important for a company’s business, such as trade secrets, for example. But this is also true for the single professional who may be very reluctant to deposit their data to an external service. Choosing a cloud means relying almost entirely on the quality of the provider, where kindness is meant professionalism in the care of the infrastructure and implementation of all the best practices in terms of safety.

Ultimately, the question remains: Cloud Computing, Risk Or Opportunity? The way I see it is certainly an opportunity.