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Cloud solutions: benefits, risks, and trends

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shane jo
Cloud solutions: benefits, risks, and trends

Cloud solutions: benefits, risks, and trends


Why should your business consider cloud software as a service solution? First, because it requires less capital investment.

Every day more companies use business solutions in the cloud. However, the adoption process has been gradual and not all IT departments fully understand the potential benefits to be gained and risks to control when adopting such a solution.

I will focus specifically on the type of cloud solutions known as SaaS (Software as a Service)

–in Ottawa, software as services–. There are other forms of computing services in the cloud, such as infrastructure, as services, or platform as services, which on this occasion will not be the object of reflection - although there are important similarities.

Let's start with the benefits. Why should a business consider cloud software as a service solution?

First, a cloud solution requires less capital investment. These solutions do not require investment in

infrastructure or licensing to be used. Practically all their consumption is under the form of income. An inclusive income that includes everything you need to use the application and also keeps it updated over time.

Second, we will have a lower internal cost of IT operations. The provider is responsible for keeping the

solution ready and offering us an availability guarantee through a service level agreement that stipulates a the maximum level of failure per period of time. Most of these deals today exceed at least 99.9% availability.

Internally we will not have to worry about tasks such as database monitoring, backups, equipment maintenance, storage, system updates, etc.

Third, most cloud software solution providers allow us to try before we buy. Normally we will be able to know the operation of the solution and operate it in our business with users or limited functionality for some time.

This way we minimize the risk of making an acquisition that does not work for us.

Fourth, these solutions tend to accumulate the experience of several customers. With the best solutions, we will be able to know which are the best practices used in the market for our business area. Such a solution is

continually enriched by the needs of all the customers who use it. This will most likely allow us to find ways to optimize our business beyond what we originally had in mind.

Fifth, these solutions are typically accessed over the Internet and from anywhere. Our collaborators can access the solution from wherever they are without having to worry about our own network infrastructure and access control.

Finally, especially if we are a medium or small organization, it is highly likely that the provider's information security and business continuity practices are more complete than those we have internally.

However, not everything is rosy with cloud software solutions. There are also important risks that we have to make sure that they are taken care of correctly by the provider or providers that we choose.

The first of these is to ensure that the chosen solution has adequate information security practices. By concentrating data from multiple customers at a single point, a SaaS provider becomes a more attractive point

of attack. For this reason, there must be sound security practices in place and auditable. Ask your supplier as detailed information as possible about their safety practices.

Closely related to the previous point is that of data privacy practices. How does the solution provider ensure that your information can under no circumstances be obtained by third parties? How do you protect your information from access by employees of the same provider?

A third aspect to watch is whether the service contract does not grant ownership or exploitation rights of your

information to the solution provider. Can you use your information? It is important to review the contractual terms in detail, so that you feel comfortable with the level of access proposed.

Another issue to consider is what happens if we want to extract all of our information so that we can change

providers in the future. It is critical that you measure how you might download all of your information in some relatively standard format that allows you to migrate to a different solution in the future. This problem

also exists in software solutions that are not in the cloud. In general, you should choose your vendor well, as you will likely be working with them for several years, especially if your solution is mission-critical.

How does the provider guarantee continuity of operations? Even when there is a service level agreement, you can and should ask what steps the provider has in place to make that service level a reality.

Considering the above risks and benefits, should you participate and use cloud software solutions? There is no universal answer; However, we can review the main trends that recognized consulting companies in this market have been observing worldwide.

On the other hand, PwCpredicts 21.3% annual growth in cloud software as a service purchases by 2016 compared to

just 2% for the overall IT services market. For that year it is estimated that more than a quarter of the total spending on solutions in the world will be under this model. http://www.itspaul.ca/

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