With cloud computing turning out to be a disrupting technology, it is vital that companies must understand ways to leverage the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of migrating to cloud.

With a plethora of cloud hosting vendors in the market, newbie entrepreneurs, in particular may need specific guidance to help firm up their decision.

Cloud computing is trending these days, with keen interest shown across all business verticals. Most of the corporates are interested to evaluate the potential advantages and possible pitfalls before pitching in to cloud.

The mood however is upbeat.

Analysts and experts are quick to list the current acceleration in cloud adoption and also predict the potential market size in the coming years.

“There is no going back”, says a business analyst. “Corporates have no option but to adopt cloud. The only thing they must focus now is on how to choose the right vendors and deal with them”.

That said, we must also admit that we still have two distinct camps. On one hand we have the dedicated campaigners who want companies to adopt cloud computing as early as possible. On the other hand the conformists do not find anything special in cloud and dismiss it as over-hyped.

What is the truth?

The truth is cloud computing can bring unprecedented benefits to companies. It will be the primary vehicle for acquiring technology in the near future.

In keeping with the status cloud will have in the future, it is important that captains of the industry must be well apprised of both the benefits and downsides of adopting cloud. 

Yes, everyone is talking about cloud these days. The slogan everywhere is it allows free and easy access to data and enables companies to be more flexible ands save on costs.

Yet, conservative businesses still contemplate replacing their old servers by a new one.

Should we feel sorry for them?  Yes, in a way. Buying new computers can be too expensive. Cloud seems to be the only answer.

But before you rush in to cloud computing make sure you understand the pros and the cons.

Here are some of the issues you must keep in mind.

Moving data to the cloud

For entrepreneurs getting their data migrated to the cloud can look exciting. The path however is no cake walk.

Transition to cloud can come with barriers such as vendor lock-in. Once your data and servers are hosted with one cloud vendor then it is no easy task to move them to another provider in the future.

Vendor lock-in is a situation where a customer cannot transition a service to another vendor.

It is for this reason cautious entrepreneurs often cite vendor lock-in as a major impediment to cloud computing adoption.

The best approach to address this issue is to choose a vendor wisely in the first place.

Experts advise entrepreneurs the following:

   -   Thoroughly go through the fine print of each cloud provider’s terms and conditions and if necessary query them on how they enable moving customer data out of their cloud storage repository.

   -   Ask the cloud vendor if they offer tools for data migration or services to assist movement of large amounts of data.

Security in the cloud

For many businesses security is one of the leading concerns pertaining to cloud computing. By making use of a remote based cloud infrastructure a company essentially risks compromising on private data and information.

Companies have to trust their vendors to safeguard their data from unauthorized users.

Availability

There have been instances of outages at the facilities of cloud hosting vendors. These have raised concerns on the dependability of cloud solutions. It is true several providers guarantee 99.9% uptime, yet companies are nervous about the loss of control they may face if an outage does occur. 

Costs associated with migration

Many businesses may find it very taxing to move from legacy infrastructure to cloud. Legacy systems can be complex with limited interoperability. It is essential therefore for companies to reassure themselves that their legacy architecture is compatible with virtual cloud environments.

The above points must not be considered as barriers, but as challenges that need to be overcome. Fortunately, new technology is addressing most of the above points and reinforcing cloud’s case as the best way of delivering computing services.

Cloud has the potential to benefit all sectors in one way or other. Let us consider a few.

Healthcare

Cloud has proved to be an exemplar shift in the use of medical information in the United States. It is providing seamless access to Electronic Health Records of patients.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

SMEs have been reluctant to take full advantage of the IT systems because of the high upfront costs of sourcing hardware and related infrastructure. The cloud has reduced the cost component of using IT for SMEs. Businesses are now experiencing benefits like scalability, flexibility and the pay –as- you- use model.

Education

The education sector faces many challenges like high cost, restricted reach and quality.  The Cloud can very well come to the rescue by overcoming these barriers.

Summary

Cloud will surely prove to be a disruptive technology. The future will see companies owning fewer IT assets. The focus will be more on management of information and less on management of IT systems.