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The opportunities and challenges of migrating to the Cloud.

As result of his decision, Lyman figured that they had saved an average of 1.000 US dollars per employee in hardware and software costs. He further mentioned that since the time they had been using Google’s services, they haven’t had a need to run their Internal mail system and Exchange servers again, buy licenses for such software, or incurred other significant deployment, maintenance and overhead expenses.

In addition to software as a Service (SaaS) several computing storage services exist on the cloud, for instance. Amazon elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), the Rockspace Clud, and Google App Engine. Websites hosted with the help of such services can handle unexpected spikes in traffic by creating and deploying virtual servers for added processing power and load balancing – on demand, with the owners billed per hour of the active server time. The fundamental difference between dedicated hosting and scalable cloud hosting is that, with the latter, you only pay for what you use, and you use only what you need. Whereas with the former, you need to keep in consideration the minimum server power required to handle your highest estimated swell in user traffic and buy that much – which you normally won’t need. Again, the Cloud offers significant savings by letting you skip the initial investment required to initiate minimum server power.

Cloud computing tutorial

On the flip side

It is not all rainbows and butterflies; cloud computing faces fifty criticism as well. The data security issue is a common reason cited for the reluctance shown in embracing cloud computing as it means your data – personal data backup or business e-mail or documents – to online companies in complete confidence. For cloud computing, much of the security issue revolves around trust and customer relationships. You need to be sure that these companies can protect your data from any unauthorized access or tampering.

Organizations that deal with sensitive customer data, such as insurance agencies, hospitals or financial institutions, should of course, think twice before moving to the Cloud. For many years, businesses have relied on third-party sources for data storage and backup needs. Despite the fact that a small-scale business can not provide the same level of data security and redundancy as one that specializes in hosting and storage services; conventional wisdom proves that a local server setup is safer than, say an Amazon or Rackspace data center. Although it is easier for someone to break into an office building to steal data rather than infiltrating an Amazon server farm, remote storage still scares off people.

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The opportunities and challenges of migrating to the Cloud.

Cloud computing tutorial Eyes on the sky

However, it is not just data theft that worries people, software license agreements and data lock-down are a point of contention as well. Hence, you are likely to wonder – will your data be available to you at all times? What if you lose internet connectivity? What if your storage provider experiences a break-down? In addition, most people tend to overlook whether a move to the Cloud is deemed appropriate for the business or deemed appropriate for the business or not. Although cloud services are easy to acquire; technical and procedural integration of the Cloud with your existing system is not as smooth as it may seem. Additionally, due to certain security and implementation issues, migration can sometimes incur greater cost than the worth of the shift.

Cloud computing is undoubtedly a great paradigm shift in IT. It reduces barriers to entry, provided greater scalability, and drives innovation. At the same time, it has increased businesses’ efficiency by allowing them to outsource their infrastructure and consume computing power in a utility-based model. However, cloud computing shouldn’t be assumed as a ‘be-all and end-all’ solution for every IT problem imaginable. Therefore, one word of caution to those wondering how to bring the Cloud into their lives – not all businesses and systems belong up there – at least, not yet!

Things to consider :

As already mentioned, not all businesses and systems belong on the cloud. However, if you are keen on migrating your business to the cloud, then you need to be careful about some of the following issues :

Your business : Just because it’s the “Year of Cloud Computing”, it does not mean you need to be on the Cloud because that’s where all the ‘cool kids’ are. Assess your business strategy to see how well it can integrate with a cloud-based system. Data management, security, and availability all need to be taken into consideration. Perhaps you need to stop thinking of the Cloud as a replacement to your local processing and storage system and more as an extension to your existing structure.
Trusting the provider : When you choose a cloud service, you are effectively granting control of your data to the service-provider and if you cannot trust the service provider with your data, there is no point in going any further.
The right kind of cloud : Make sure you go through the license agreement and terms of service and understand the way cloud architecture works, in order to avoid any confusion regarding data security. Research on the available options and make a choice according to your requirements. Many SaaS providers also offer consultation services, which is a good idea if you are unsure about how this will work.
Technical integration : Many cloud implementations require constant internet access, which may be difficult to guarantee. Moreover, the application you want may not be suited for the Cloud; response times and network lags can become an issue for many setups. Applications that are more processor or bandwidth intensive, or require more I/O processes, may drive up the IT costs as part of the utility bill.

Bailing out : Your data is your own, and one day you might want to move to another cloud or ditch the idea of cloud computing altogether. If that day comes, you need to be able to get your data out of the provider’s system safely and easily. Thus, all of this should be clearly specified in the license agreement.

Things to consider :

As already mentioned, not all businesses and systems belong on the cloud. However, if you are keen on migrating your

business to the cloud, then you need to be careful about some of the following issues :

Your business : Just because it’s the “Year of Cloud Computing”, it does not mean you need to be on the Cloud because that’s where all the ‘cool kids’ are. Assess your business strategy to see how well it can integrate with a cloud-based system. Data management, security, and availability all need to be taken into consideration. Perhaps you need to stop thinking of the Cloud as a replacement to your local processing and storage system and more as an extension to your existing structure.
Trusting the provider : When you choose a cloud service, you are effectively granting control of your data to the service-provider and if you cannot trust the service provider with your data, there is no point in going any further.
The right kind of cloud : Make sure you go through the license agreement and terms of service and understand the way cloud architecture works, in order to avoid any confusion regarding data security. Research on the available options and make a choice according to your requirements. Many SaaS providers also offer consultation services, which is a good idea if you are unsure about how this will work.
Technical integration : Many cloud implementations require constant internet access, which may be difficult to guarantee. Moreover, the application you want may not be suited for the Cloud; response times and network lags can become an issue for many setups. Applications that are more processor or bandwidth intensive, or require more I/O processes, may drive up the IT costs as part of the utility bill.