Benefits
of the Cloud
Here are the main advantages of Cloud Computing:
- No upfront investments: Using the cloud means you do not have to buy hosting equipment and set up a sufficient on-site facility. You also do not have to cover the costs of utilities (e.g., power) or hire a team of skilled IT Admins.
- Less risk of downtime: Cloud providers have up time standards that are impossible to ensure on an in-house level.
- Data accessibility: The cloud enables employees to access resources and data from any location or device. This feature makes the cloud a natural fit with remote-first teams and companies with BYOD policies.
- Easy to scale: A business using the cloud is able to scale its IT resources up or down based on current demands.
- No overhead: The team can monitor the use of cloud resources to ensure there's no unnecessary spending.
- Easier (and more reliable) backups: Once the data resides in the cloud, all backup and disaster recovery (BDR) goals are easier to achieve.
- Improved team collaboration: The cloud allows employees to share files quickly and easily. There's less need for USBs, massive downloads, and email attachments, so you also lower the attack surface.
- Top-tier performance: Cloud services run on the latest computing hardware, so expect high performance for your cloud-based app.
- Global scalability: If you are expanding into a new market or a user base at a specific location is growing, you deploy new servers to that area and meet current demands instantly.
- Unlimited storage: A cloud never runs out of storage room.
- Data security: Cloud providers offer many advanced features to ensure high data security. These measures are not a realistic in-house option for most companies.
Disadvantages
of the Cloud
Here are the main downsides of using cloud computing:
- You never own the equipment: While setting up in the cloud is cheaper than building an in-house server room, expenses pile up over time. In a few years, you might look back and realize all that DCO money could have gone towards a private hosting facility.
- Clouds are complex: Private clouds, multi-cloud, and hybrid architectures are hard to design, set up, protect, and manage. Ensure the in-house team has sufficient skill sets before you go all-in on an ambitious cloud project.
- No internet, no access: Only needing an Internet connection to access data is both a benefit and a concern. If you're offline, there's no way to access the cloud until you're back online.
- Vendor lock-in: If you set up workloads at a third-party provider, you will likely experience vendor lock-in over time. This problem prevents moving to another vendor without impacting the hosted app. Common issues include prolonged downtime, software incompatibilities, and pricy cloud migrations.
- Limited control: The provider is the one who owns and manages the cloud. Stay clear if this hands-off approach does not work for you (or set up a private cloud in your office).
- Compliance issues: It is sometimes challenging to meet industry-specific regulations when hosting data at a third-party facility.
- Security and risk concerns: While providers invest heavily in keeping data safe, cloud computing requires you to share data with a third party. You do not have direct control or complete visibility over data storage, which introduces new risks.
