Photo credit: 401(K) 2013
One of the major reasons for companies to turn to cloud computing is cost advantages. Most often you will find vendor’s pitching on that line too. But is cloud as cost effective as it promises? There is no clear answer to this question as yet. While some companies were able to save big bucks by shifting to virtual environment other had found that improvements in terms of saving were negligible. In this article we will try to deduce the areas where some companies have gone wrong with their cloud integration projects and how these can be avoided.
Let us look into some of the factors which I think are to be blamed for not allowing companies to save of their virtualization projects.
Improper assessment of need: The hype regarding cloud is raging strongly than before and many enterprises are adopting it blindly without giving much thought to its appropriateness in their organizations. The cost saving feature of cloud based services were much hyped which lead to companies believe that it will make their IT expenses negligible. Lack of clear idea about the services offered and improper analysis of needs are the main factors which lead to lower saving.
Expectations gone wrong: Yes, we had very high expectations. Cloud computing isn’t going to eliminate all your IT worries. You may still need to maintain servers and networks along with your team of IT to reap the advantages from cloud. You should also be patient till you reach the breakeven point in virtualized environment and doing so can certainly expect to save big in the long run.
Wrong service model: Adoption of cloud has taught us the importance of carefully selecting the right service model before investing. Before you negotiate your ways through hosted service agreements you need to have a clear idea about your requirements.
SaaS Development Services deliver high value services while PaaS services will ensure accessibility. Infrastructure as a service may not necessarily reduce your capital expenditure. So, you need to choose a service according to your needs.
Wrong provider: Perhaps the biggest mistake one can commit while adopting hosted services is choosing the wrong vendor. Undoubtedly it is a difficult task to cut through the jargons and reading the fine prints of every service-level agreement of each vendor but it holds the key to your saving. The complicated nature of services offered has further made it difficult to decode. However, you need to be patient in choosing the right provider.
Falling for the cheapest one: Since cloud computing promises of big savings there is a tendency to choose the cheapest service available. But this can cost you very dearly in the long run as there can be issues related to quality and availability of service, maintenance, security, outage, data backup, disaster recovery etc. The initial cost benefits may disappear soon. Select a service that will meet your requirements regarding flexibility, availability, scalability, data security and can be incorporated into your organizational environment without adding to your expenses.
The saving with cloud adoption may not be humongous at the initial phase but the costs are like to come down with time. Further, it is yet to reach its maturity which eventually will eliminate the concerns over data securities in a virtualized environment and will not require organizations to place additional security layers to protect their information. With new innovations happening on cloud based applications everyday we can hope that economy of services will improve in future.
Author’s Bio
Charles Smith is a writer. He loves to share experience regarding recent trends of Cloud based technology and cloud based applications. Apart of writing and consulting; he loves driving, cooking, sky falling and many more adventures game.
