Meet the 5 most common mistakes in using cloud computing
Cloud computing is the fad technology in business and no wonder. In fact, it brings many advantages to most companies and this is the reason why it has been adopted by companies of all sizes and fields. Mobility, the ability to share and lower investment in hardware are among several gains brought by cloud computing.
However, if there is no planning, the implementation of a solution in cloud computing can be bad and end up harming your business. But how to avoid the major mistakes? Is it possible to perform a smooth migration without major setbacks? See the 5 most common mistakes in implementing a cloud computing solution and find out how your company can avoid them:
01. Not taking into account the issue of security
When your company’s data and applications are in the cloud you can not forget one thing: responsibility for security in relation to your customers is still your company’s. Of course, from the moment that there is a contract with the cloud computing services provider, it must answer for security holes, but any problems in this sphere with the data and business applications with your customers will fall on your company.
Therefore, carefully study what the security features that your business needs are and make sure that the hired provider can offer appropriate solutions. When in doubt, ask and look for other options on the market. You may need to spend more on a safer solution, but always remember that this is an important investment, with a big business impact on your company.
An opposite derivation of this error is to overvalue security too much as to become obsessive. The result can be either an exaggerated spending on security solutions or even the complete non-migration of applications to the cloud, missing its resulting advantages.
02. Failing to consider all the cloud options
There are basically three types of cloud service. The private one, when the solution is deployed by a single company for domestic use; the public one, when a provider offers the service to several different companies, having multiple users; and the hybrid one, that mixes the two types of solution.
It is very important to consider these three types of cloud service and understand which best fits your company. The private one, for example, is almost always safer but is also more expensive and more difficult to scale if your business’ needs grow. On the other hand, if the type of business requires a very large access security, the public option may not be the best one.
03. Migrating too fast
Bad news: there is no magic for cloud computing! Most migration errors occur because there were no suitable planning and strategy done by IT experts. To succeed, migration should take place gradually and be preceded by rigorous research on the best solution and preparation of an appropriate strategy for data portability.
Being eager to embrace a new technology, your business may end up messing things up; therefore, take it easy and use the time it takes to plan a smooth migration.
04. Forgetting to draw up a contingency plan
As we said in the beginning of the text, even when hiring an outsourced solution for cloud computing, the responsibility with your clients remains for your company. Consequently, it is crucial to develop a contingency plan in case the provider goes through some trouble.
This plan should include both short and long term problems. Your business can not just stop when the cloud computing service goes through maintenance for a few hours. Likewise, you should seek solutions for the cases – not as frequent, but there are some – of services that close without notice.
05. Leaving monitoring for the infrastructure provider
Monitoring the infrastructure is an important practice to measure, among other things, the availability of all technological resources that are vital for the organizations. The detection of systems outages and failures at the exact moment when they happen can be decisive to avoid losses.
Many IT managers think that the infrastructure migration to the cloud will cause this problem to be outsourced to the cloud service provider. However, they should not neglect this responsibility, for it is still necessary to monitor the cloud infrastructure. When migrating the infrastructure for cloud computing services, the service level agreements are defined in a contract, in which the supplier undertakes to ensure optimum availability of IT resources.
It is essential to control the availability from monitoring solutions to find out if the cloud computing option was adequate or not. OpServices, for example, monitors various infrastructures hosted in its clients’ cloud by means of OpMon.
Cloud computing is a technological concept that can be extremely advantageous for companies, but, as any solution, it takes planning, calm and strategy to be implemented. Failures can happen, but following the 5 tips in this article, your business will considerably reduce the chances of making big mistakes and will be able to enjoy with ease the capital gains brought by cloud computing.
