SOJOURNERS

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing

“When weighing the Cloud Computing advantages and disadvantages, it’s important to keep the sources of those pros and cons in mind.”

AKG

Cloud Computing can offer your business a number of advantages. It allows you to set up a virtual office with access to your tools and services anywhere and anytime, through a web-enabled device.

Despite its many advantages, Cloud Computing is not without its issues. You should be aware of these if you’re considering moving your business into the cloud.

Advantages Of Cloud Computing

The primary, all-encompassing reason to adopt Cloud Computing is that the business doesn’t need to concern itself with building, staffing, and maintaining an in-house data center. The company pays the provider to worry about all that.

However, there are many more advantages to using the Cloud, such as:

  1. Cost-efficiency. Customers don’t have to buy equipment or pay the salaries of an entire IT department to maintain and upgrade infrastructure and related software. And let’s not forget the elimination of other related expenses like utility costs (e.g., electricity).
  2. Speed. Cloud providers supply their customers with rapid, on-demand self-service, so just a few clicks of a mouse brings any needed resource expansions up and running online.
  3. Elastic scaling. Maybe a company needs more cloud resources during certain times of the year (e.g., holiday sales, month-end accounting) and fewer resources at other times. Elastic scaling gives the customer access to the right amount of resources (e.g., storage, processing power, bandwidth) only when they’re needed through automation.
  4. Accessibility. Access your data anywhere, anytime. An Internet cloud infrastructure maximizes enterprise productivity and efficiency by ensuring your application is always accessible. This allows for easy collaboration and sharing among users in multiple locations.
  5. Access to new technologies.
    Cloud Computing can help ensure that you always have access to the latest technology. You would no longer need to worry about updating your software or investing in new back-end technology – as your service provider could manage this on your behalf. This can also give you access to software, hardware and IT functionality that would be too expensive to buy outright.
  6. Increased productivity. As a rule, cloud computing doesn’t result in the complete removal of the customer’s IT department, but it does reduce the necessity of having a vast department. With the cloud provider handling time-consuming, mundane chores like software patches and hardware setup, the customers can have a streamlined, efficient IT department free to handle the more strategic business needs.
  7. Security. Although the idea of having confidential data stored offsite on a shared server sounds scary, cloud providers know that if they want to stay in business, they better provide excellent security. Fortunately, they do.
  8. Business continuity. Cloud computing can back up and mirror useful data on many redundant network sites, making it easier for businesses to recover from disasters.
  9. Efficient recovery. Cloud Computing delivers faster and more accurate retrievals of applications and data. With less downtime, it is the most efficient recovery plan.
  10. Easy implementation. Cloud hosting allows business to retain the same applications and business processes without having to deal with the backend technicalities. Readily manageable by the Internet, a cloud infrastructure can be accessed by enterprises easily and quickly.

Disadvantages Of Cloud Computing

If Cloud Computing were perfect, everyone would be doing it. And although Cloud Computing is a prevalent and continuously growing platform, it brings along its share of drawbacks that prevent it from being universally embraced.

  1. What was that about the cost? Just like renting a living space isn’t necessarily cheaper than buying a house outright, cloud computing platforms aren’t always a great bargain. The cost comes down to the business’ unique needs and situations. It could be that it’s cheaper to have a small, in-house data center that runs the same applications as clockwork every month.
  2. Migration can also be expensive. In some situations, migrating from an in-house system to the cloud may incur excessive expenses and pose a significant difficulty.
  3. There are still trust issues. Some businesses balk at the idea of their confidential information stored on the same servers as their competitors’ data, potentially crippling a competitive advantage.
  4. No longer in control. When moving services to the cloud, you are handing over your data and information. For companies who have an in-house IT staff, they will be unable to handle issues on their own.
  5. May not get all the features. Not all cloud services are the same. Some cloud providers tend to offer limited versions and enable the most popular features only, so you may not receive every feature or customization you want. Before signing up, make sure you know what your cloud service provider offers.
  6. Cloud downtime. The cloud, like any other IT set-up, can experience technical problems such as reboots, network outages and downtime. These events can incapacitate business operations and processes, and can be damaging to business.
  7. Cloud security and data. Most cloud service providers implement relevant security standards and industry certifications to ensure that their cloud environment remains safe. However, storing data and business-critical files in virtual data centres can potentially open you up to risks like data loss or theft, account or service hijacking, denial of service attacks, technology vulnerabilities, especially on shared environments etc.
  8. Cloud service closes shop. In a mature industry, you usually deal with one of a handful of known players that offer time-tested, reliable services. Cloud computing is a young industry with lots of companies vying for business. There is a possibility that your cloud provider will run out of money and close their doors forever.

Final Thoughts

Despite all the Cloud Computing advantages and disadvantages, we can’t deny the fact that Cloud Computing is the fastest growing part of network-based computing. It offers a great advantage to customers of all sizes: simple users, developers, enterprises and all types of organizations. So, this technology here to stay for a long time.

🅐🅚🅖

Interested in Management, Design or Technology Consulting, contact anil.kg.26@gmail.com
Get updates and news on our social channels!

LATEST POSTS

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.