In Industry has witnessed the Cloud computing phenomenon making it all pervasive owing to its capabilities, flexibility and economic benefits.
IT heads and IT managers who are part of the Cloud invasion take cognizance of the fact that cloud is imperative because of the savings it drives and helps the organization to move from Capex to Opex.
However, every corporate is still evaluating the cloud as there are several concerns which needs to be addressed. IT managers go with five key concerns which is critical to address before arriving at a decision. In this article, we will look at five important concerns that IT managers feel must be addressed while migrating to cloud.
According to Shiju George, Sr Manager (Infrastructure), Shoppers Stop Ltd says, The first step before moving into the Cloud would be to ask why one wants to move to cloud. Lately there has been so much hype about the cloud and it has become a fancy name overnight, so one need to evaluate the actual benefits and challenges of the cloud.
George says, As an IT manager, I would also like to know if my end-users like the store managers or cashiers are benefiting from moving to the cloud. I would also understand if I can get a right partner/vendor who can take me through the whole implementation process and related support services.
According to him, the other steps would be the usual security aspects, costs, SLA's and the data backup.
Berjes Shroff, Senior Manager-IT, Tata Services Ltd., agrees that cloud is a sensitive issue and needs to a careful observation. According to him, data confidentiality is of prime importance. Lets say if the data is hosted on a cloud in USA and for some reason the US government wants the data to be handed over, then there is no way anyone stop them, he remarks.
Shroff is in favour of the choices of security, SLA's, reliability of the service providers, backup storage and also disaster recovery (DR), the key concerns associated with cloud.
U. Arunkumar Sheth, Head Software Development, Gati Ltd., opines that applications on the cloud need to be tuned to ones requirements; however, there is least amount of customisation involved.
Sheth admits that security of data, Cost and ROI, SLA'S, reliable vendors and DR as the major concerns on the cloud today.
Here are the 5 major cloud challenges:
Data security: It goes without saying that when putting applications and data onto a system outside an in-house data centre, customers will want to be sure that only the right people can access it and that its contents remain secure.
SLAs for the migration: SLAs (Service Level Agreements) are often carefully negotiated for a relationship with a cloud provider, but one key phase of moving to the cloud migration is often overlooked.
Vendor lock-in and reliability: Be careful when you're choosing a cloud computing vendor that you are not locking your business into using their proprietary applications or formats. Also choose a reliable and proven vendor with experience who is trust worthy.
Cost: At first glance, a cloud computing application may appear to be a lot cheaper than a particular software solution installed and run in-house, but you need ensure there is a perfect comparison. Does the cloud application have all the features that the software does and if not, are the missing features important to you?
Cloud-based DR: Disaster recovery on the cloud is still nascent, but can be an attractive alternative for companies that may be strapped for IT resources. However, concerns around the bandwidth and network capacity to redirect all users to the cloud is critical and if you plan to restore from the cloud to on-premises infrastructure, how long will that restore take?
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