Tech Lover 9

Cloud computing is the next big thing, whilst initial take-up was slow due to a number of concerns expressed by enterprises, there’s now little doubt as to the benefits of cloud. However, cloud takes many forms and there is usually a solution to be found for most businesses.

Faster broadband and fiber optic have opened up a whole new world for businesses, both large and small. Flexibility, scalability, energy saving; all of these are big factors alongside the lack of capital outlay required which have meant that SMEs are proving to be one of the biggest beneficiaries of cloud so far.

But not all companies want to switch to the cloud and below are the four most common reasons why:

• Security is cited as the top reasons why organizations resist moving to the cloud by Gartner Research. Concerns surrounding the security of the actual data center software, whether it can be hacked and data being stored away from the business premises are all cited. However, it’s more likely that data is more secure in a data center, which not only has decent firewalls and suchlike in place, but is often also physically protected by security personnel.
• Capital outlay is another concern, but only if your company is rebuilding its existing legacy infrastructure and putting in place a private cloud. Often, services such as hosted desktops (SaaS) can be paid for month-by-month and as such can represent significant cost savings, especially for smaller companies who would otherwise have to setup and pay for their own servers and internal infrastructure.
• Disaster recovery – many businesses worry that in case of a fire, flood or some other disaster such as server failure will mean that all of their data will be lost. However, most data centers have by far better disaster recovery plans set out than your average corporation.
• Deployment – organizations with large infrastructures already in place that work perfectly well will say that there is no need to deploy to the cloud. Further to this, the logistics can give even the biggest IT departments a headache – however, there’s no real reason that deployment can’t be carried out gradually or a hybrid solution put in place.

All in all, there are no good reasons that companies shouldn’t be considering cloud services, whether it be PaaS, IaaS or SaaS. The benefits of the cloud are enormous, especially for small startups as the cloud can offer a way of beginning your business in the right way and free up valuable funding, which can be used for marketing and so forth.

Whilst take-up has been slow, this is something that is changing rapidly and a recent survey by IT industry association CompTIA found that 85% of companies now feel more positive about deployment to the cloud in 2012, as opposed to 72% in 2011.

Currently, 8 out of 10 businesses use cloud services, although the majority of these are based in web email services; about 25% use SaaS and this is growing all the time. Whilst moving to the cloud may seem like a bad idea, it’s the most rapidly growing section of the industry and if you don’t want your business to be left behind, then it’s definitely worth more consideration.