Thinking About Moving To The Cloud?

In 2018 over 60% of organizations either had previously moved, were in the process of moving, or were thinking about moving their mission-critical data and applications into some sort of cloud solution. The problem that many organizations complain about after the fact is they really didn’t know what they were getting themselves and their businesses into before implementing a cloud solution.

With all the talk about cloud, what I’ve been finding is that a lot of folks are a little misinformed on what cloud really is. Today I want to walk through some of the recent misconceptions that have been circling about the cloud.

Myth 1: The cloud will always save you money

A lot of organizations think that when they move to the cloud, they’re instantaneously going to save buckets of money related to the onsite costs of owning, maintaining and managing your servers. But in reality, some cloud solutions will not save you much.

If you’re thinking that a cloud solution is the sure fire shot at saving money, you might be disappointed when all is said and done.

When approaching cloud solutions, don’t assume a cost savings until you’ve done the work to analyze your specific situation (meaning, what you require of cloud storage and computing).

Myth 2: You Need The Cloud To Keep Up

A lot of executives have asked me about cloud because they feel like it’s a sure fire way to know they’re keeping up with technology changes. While many cloud platforms offer great solutions implement the newest technologies for good reason, as you’re putting together your technology strategy, realize that cloud is perfect for some processes, but not always all components of your business.

When you’re approaching cloud, focus on finding a solution that fits your business needs rather than simply migrating to a one-size-fits-all approach or assuming one solution will work for everything.

Myth 3: You Should Be Using The Cloud Everywhere

Some types of work are perfect for cloud usage. Maybe you have a lot of remote workers or have a lot of mobility within your organization, for example. The problem is that some applications or processes might not fit well with a cloud strategy.

Before signing a contract, consider your desired outcomes. How do you expect your staff to work with cloud solutions? Evaluate the applications they are using case-by-case before making a global decision that a cloud solution is the way to go (or you may end up losing functionality you originally expected in the solution you’ve chosen).

Myth 4: You Need To Focus On One Cloud Solution

Often times, when planning a migration to the cloud, a team will come up with a strategy completely circling around one pre-conceived cloud solution. The problem with strategizing to a specific solution is that you might be losing some of the functionality your organization needs to continue running your critical processes.

What experts recommend is to evaluate what your team’s work looks like before identifying where cloud would help facilitate that work or your critical processes or help improve how work being done. Designing your processes around a specific technology is dangerous business. If you’ve tailored your working processes to a specific cloud solution, you may have to reinvent the wheel in the event something happens to that cloud vendor.

When coming up with your strategy, establish an agile strategy that will accommodate both cloud and non-cloud options.

Myth 5: The Cloud Is Inherently More Secure

This myth has unfortunately led to a lot of heartbreak across the country. In many instances, organizations migrated their data and systems to the cloud thinking that the cloud is just more secure than any alternatives.

The problem with thinking this is the cloud is only as safe as the preventative measures a specific vendor takes to ensure those servers are secure. Cloud environments that are ill-maintained (for instance, lacking security patches or firewalls that are not configured correctly) can be even more vulnerable than having a server at your facility.

Realize that cybercriminals are looking to exploit as many businesses as they can and cloud vendors that do not keep squeaky clean networks are a big target.

Before assuming that a cloud solution is safer for your business, take a look under the hood. Make sure that a vendor is doing what they say they’re doing. If they won’t give you specific guarantees or won’t clearly explain and showing you examples of how they’re keeping your network secure, they might not be the best solution when it comes to data security or business continuity.

Myth 6: I’ve Moved To The Cloud, Now We’re Done!

I get a lot of folks that ask if the cloud is a set it and forget it technology. Once you migrate to the cloud you might not reap all the benefits a vendor has promised—especially not all at the get go. Moving your users to the cloud might require training, configuration and continual improvement over a period of time until your organization is humming the way you were before transitioning to the cloud.

In all likelihood your organization won’t be leveraging all the cloud has to offer from the start.

Experts recommend thinking about architecting a cloud strategy that exploits all the capabilities (and takes in mind some of the short comings) related to your cloud platform before making the move.

Bottom line: if you’re thinking about moving to the cloud or rethinking your cloud solution, you might want to come up with a plan before you act. ff