There are many ways to generate improvements in business performance. The main point is to reduce costs. Depending on the solutions used, some companies operating in the market for hardware and software in the cloud say the economy may be ten times better.

The first aspect to consider in this economy is electricity. You do not have to pay for the power of the servers 24 hours a day. You pay monthly for a service that is basically the operation of hardware and software.

The second issue may be in need of trained professionals to use the software. The programs in the cloud computing services, usually have a very large degree of standardization. Therefore, for users with some familiarity with personal computers, there is no need of training in most cases. It also generates savings.

A third argument is that, by choosing the cloud hosting, there will be some equipment costs, which were designed to operate outside the cloud, and operating systems. On the other hand, “Customers do not buy an asset. Only one service. ”

The fourth factor is controversial. The companies say that their customers can spend less on security, but the claim is relative. The argument is that those who hire the service do not need to spend money on antivirus, backup and other methods of prevention. However, the potential loss of these buyers remains high, as some data may be stolen or sold. That is, the customer who choose a cloud,  does not necessarily mean that he is not going to worry about security.

You especially are saying: The future is in the clouds or not?

Cloud computing is revolutionizing the industry of Information Technology, promising flexibility, capacity and availability without limits, almost instantaneously, and at a very low cost. Several companies are developing technology and infrastructure to provide services in order to share them for several clients, providing a high level of profitability.

The model is clearly advantageous for companies, but requires special care in hiring, in order to avoid a number of risks in the long run, which can reverse the proposed advantages. Identify some critical points to consider when evaluating the hiring decision:

• Dependence of the Provider – It is important to always have an exit plan, familiar with the integrations and dependencies of their systems, so that is simple to transfer between providers of cloud services;

• Information Security – In general, the Cloud systems are safe. However, it is important to ensure that, before moving to the Cloud, the safety management processes are properly defined and that the chosen provider is able to implement them;

• Regulation of information – Some regulatory policies can prevent the adoption of the simple model, forcing the organization to establish control over their systems (internal or third party). In these cases, you need a detailed analysis of the technological architecture of the supplier and a very detailed transition plan, to cover all regulatory requirements that the company is required;

• Levels of Service – The service level agreement should be accompanied by a model of penalties for non-compliance of the provider, allowing, in extreme situations, the breaking of the contract without cost to the customer;

• Backup and Recovery – The preservation of information is critical for companies, and must be previously defined in a policy of safeguarding the information. For example the regularity of copies, the retention periods of data and recovery times in case of need;

• Expected long-term costs – These subscription services are almost free of initial investment and incomes are very low. However, it is important to ensure that, as our systems grow, the costs do not rise exponentially, reversing the initial scenario. This is possible with two concrete actions:

i) Detailed planning is needed to avoid a sequence of additional costs resulting from forgotten details and ii) Negotiating the terms of change (increase or decrease).