Clouds became very popular, some of us use it in daily life in order to store photos, music and to empty space on the smartphone or laptop. While the others use it for running the business, it is more convenient to keep and access important information in the cloud services. Even though, some still doubt if this technology is secure enough and use other ways of saving the information.
Cost Saving
The question of price always is quite important. The clouds are ought to save the time and money, one of the advantages is that service works as pay-as-you-go. This strategy ensures that you will pay only for things you use. The pay-as-you-go system also applies to the data storage space needed to service your stakeholders and clients, which means that you’ll get exactly as much space as you need, and not be charged for any that you don’t.
Security
It is obvious that there are many doubts among users regarding the security of data in clouds. If you can remote access your data, then what’s stopping some cybercriminal from doing the same thing? Well, quite a bit, actually. First of all, a cloud host’s job is to carefully monitor the security, which is significantly more efficient than a conventional in-house system. As an added security measure, with most cloud-based services, different security settings can be set based on the user.
Flexibility
The cloud computing services offer extended flexibility, comparing with hosting to the local servers. In case if you need extra bandwidth, a cloud-based service can meet that demand faster, than undergoing a complex update of the IT infrastructure. This improved freedom and flexibility can make a significant difference to the overall efficiency of the organization. A 65% majority of respondents to an InformationWeek survey said ‘the ability to quickly meet business demands’ was one of the most important reasons a business should move to a cloud environment.
Mobility
All the information is available from any part of the world and any device. Employees can keep working while traveling, this is very important in case of emergencies. Due to the fact that most cloud providers are doing their best to provide the most reliable services, maintaining 99.99% uptime. As long as, internet connection is accessible – users can easily access required files and applications.
Together with a number of advantages, there are some risks of cloud computing.
Downtime
As cloud service providers take care of a number of clients each day, they can become overwhelmed and may even come up with technical outages. This can lead to your business processes being temporarily suspended. Additionally, if your internet connection is offline, you will not be able to access any of your applications, server or data from the cloud.
Security
Although cloud service providers implement the best security standards and industry certifications, storing data and important files on external service providers always opens up risks. Using cloud-powered technologies means that you need to grant your service provider with access to important business data. Meanwhile, being a public service opens up cloud service providers to security challenges on a routine basis.
Vendor Lock-In
Although cloud service providers promise that the cloud will be flexible to use and integrate, switching cloud services is something that hasn’t yet completely evolved. Organizations may find it difficult to migrate their services from one vendor to another. Hosting and integrating current cloud applications on another platform may throw up interoperability and support issues. For instance, applications developed on Microsoft Development Framework (.Net) might not work properly on the Linux platform.
Limited Control
Since the cloud infrastructure is entirely owned, managed and monitored by the service provider, it transfers minimal control over to the customer. The customer can only control and manage the applications, data, and services operated on top of that, not the backend infrastructure itself. Key administrative tasks such as server shell access, updating, and firmware management may not be passed to the customer or end user.
Summing Up
To be or not to be – the question remains open. The cloud computing services have many advantages and disadvantages, and the final decision is up to you. Doesn’t matter whether you decide to trust your information to the cloud services, or keep it on local servers – Inoxoft is ready to help you with implementation.
