This question, albeit it’s more of a statement seeking endorsement, was recently raised on LinkedIn and it generated a variety of responses relating to security, ease of use, and flexibility, to name but a few. I couldn’t resist the temptation to respond and counter some of those ‘issues’.
Security – any computer connected to the Internet is at risk from hackers, whether it is in the cloud or in a private data centre. Would it be true to say that an SME, with necessarily limited resources, is able to better secure its data than say, Amazon?
In addition, who says everything needs to be in the cloud? Adopting a cloud computing strategy isn’t an ‘all or nothing’ decision. With Aculab Cloud, for example, data can remain within a data centre or on premise, whilst applications that need to access such data can be based in the cloud. That’s the whole principle behind the different cloud types – private, public or hybrid.
Ease of use – I find this a curious reason not to move to the cloud. In my experience, SaaS solutions are all the more easy to use because of the accessibility they bring. You can log on, access, analyse, modify or configure them from anywhere, via any device.
Flexibility – It seems a bit harsh to blame the cloud for the inflexibility of a service. I can think of many applications/services that are inflexible, because that’s how they were designed to be.
I think that anyone considering a move to the cloud, needs to carefully consider their motivations and objectives for doing so, and to question what data and workflows they and their customers will feel happy placing in the cloud. Most importantly, select a vendor that can accommodate your cloud migration strategy, now and in the future.
Faye McClenahan
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