Here Are A Few Misconceptions About The Cloud
You need to use the cloud– it is so saturated in the modern business world that, at this point, it’s obvious that you need to be making use of it.
If you’re not already using the cloud for file sharing and storage, you’re way behind the times. But if you’re also failing to take advantage of the construction industry-specific features the cloud can deliver, then you’re missing out.
However, maybe you’ve been given some misinformation about the cloud…
3 Cloud Misconceptions You Might Believe…
1. The Cloud Is Automatically Secure
As powerful as the cloud is, it also presents serious cybersecurity concerns for legal firms that use it improperly. According to Checkpoint and Cybersecurity Insider’s 2019 Cloud Security Report:
- Leading cloud vulnerabilities include unauthorized cloud access (42%), insecure interfaces (42%), misconfiguration of the cloud platform (40%), and account hijacking (39%).
- Those responsible for cybersecurity have difficulty acquiring visibility into cloud infrastructure security and compliance (67%).
- Outdated cybersecurity solutions don’t integrate with the cloud – 66% of respondents said their traditional security solutions either don’t work at all, or only provide limited functionality in cloud environments
The bottom line is that if the cloud makes it easier for you and your staff to access your business’ data, it can potentially make it easier for cybercriminals to do so as well. That’s why you need to protect your data in the cloud – do you have an IT company managing this for you?
2. The Cloud Is Expensive
The cloud has a number of benefits to offer, a key one of which is the opportunity to move from capital expenses (CapEx) to operating expenses (OpEx). However, this is more easily said than done.
Many business’ IT budgets (and those who make them) are still based around CapEx. It’s the conventional way that IT systems used to be financed. But that’s no longer the case…
When big businesses consider the cloud, they think about it the same way they do any other endeavor – from the ground up, with the capital funds to commit to it.
Whereas small to medium-sized businesses often look for an economy of scale that provides them with access to resources they wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise, enterprises often are thinking too big to see those benefits. That doesn’t mean they don’t apply though.
No business owner or manager should assume they have to build their own data center to get the most out of the cloud. By working with a managed cloud services partner, they can maintain control, and still take advantage of the change from CapEx to OpEx. Whereas CapEx — on-premise IT solutions — is paid for upfront and brings in a gradual return over the following months and years, OpEx is “pay-as-you-go”. You pay for a cloud solution month by month, which vastly reduces the window between investment and return.
3. Migration Is Easy
There is any number of concerns related to cloud migration…
During the transition, you could lose some key files for good with no backup or redundancies to replace it.
The migration, already expensive, takes longer than you expected and adds what you thought was avoidable downtime to your staff’s work life.
Once it finally gets installed and launched, you find out the platform is overly complicated and difficult to learn, leading to more downtime for your staff.
Does that mean you should forget about the cloud and what it could do for you? Of course not. It just means you have to plan your migration carefully…
Migration is the process of moving some or all of your data and applications into the cloud (that is, to a data center or a cloud-based infrastructure provided by a cloud service provider such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure). You can choose to move some of your applications, or your total organizational infrastructure where all of your computing, software, storage, and platform services are transferred to the cloud for any time, anywhere access.
Cloud migration helps you achieve real-time and updated performance and efficiency. However, a cloud migration requires careful planning and implementation to ensure the cloud solution is compatible with your organizational requirements.
Knowing what the benefits of the cloud are and actually gaining them in your work are two very different things – you need to overcome the major obstacles and optimize your cloud environment. If you need expert assistance in migrating your firm to the cloud, then consider working with Spade Technology.
We’re proud to deliver robust and secure cloud capabilities to our clients, helping them to harness the power of new technology and transform the way they work every day.
Like this article? Check out the following blogs to learn more:
4 Ways IT Outsourcing Helps Your Business
