What is the cloud anyway?
The Cloud refers to accessing various IT services through the Internet, rather than from your local premises. These services can range from applications to hosted services such as e-mail and databases, and even entire IT infrastructures.
What are the different types of Clouds?
There are three main types of clouds: Public Clouds, Private Clouds, and Hybrid Clouds.
Public Cloud
Public Cloud refers to third-party providers such as Microsoft, Amazon or Google. These Cloud providers own and manage the supporting infrastructure and you rent services from them.
Private Cloud
Private Cloud is as the name suggests, a cloud environment owned and managed by you. It offers similar advantages to Public Clouds, but you have a greater level of control over the environment.
Hybrid Cloud
Hybrid Clouds are a mix of both Public and Private Cloud. Businesses with a Hybrid Cloud model will operate a Private Cloud but also use certain services like email from a Public Cloud Provider.
What are the different cloud service models?
The three main cloud service models are as follows:
- IaaS: Infrastructure as a Service
- PaaS: Platform as a Service
- SaaS: Software as a Service
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
IaaS, or Infrastructure as a Service, allows businesses to access virtualised IT hardware such as servers, networking, and storage but rent these, rather than purchase them outright.
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
PaaS, or Platform as a Service, allows companies to create and control their own applications without having to configure all of the underlying infrastructure such as networking, servers, and coding from the ground up.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software as a Service (SaaS) relates to cloud-based versions of applications such as email, collaboration software and more, usually via a web browser.
Benefits of moving to the cloud
There are numerous benefits of moving to the cloud, from improved scalability and security to reduced costs. It’s important to evaluate which of these are most important for you and your business to determine whether moving to the cloud is the right choice.
Cost
Cost is one of the most common advantages people think when considering moving to the cloud. It’s clear to see how cloud computing can offer considerably reduced costs for many businesses.
Rather than having to purchase expensive on-site hardware and replace this every few years, cloud computing allows you to simply rent what you need when you need it. This also makes the cost more manageable as you pay for your cloud services on an ongoing monthly basis. It’s much easier to budget for.
Scalability
Scalability is another huge benefit of moving to the cloud. You can easily scale up and down when using the cloud depending on your needs. This means you can quickly adapt as your business grows.
Environmentally friendly
Moving to the cloud isn’t just good financial sense, it’s good for the environment too. Most large datacentres that host cloud services are much more energy efficient compared to typical on-site equipment. Many of these utilise clean and renewable energy such as solar, wind and Hydroelectricity to generate their power.
To give an example, our CoretekCloud platform is hosted with Datanet, who use 100% renewable energy in their data centre.
Reliability
Keeping your business running is vitally important no matter what industry you’re in. The top cloud providers provide extremely secure and reliable platforms with multiple levels of redundancy to keep downtime to an absolute minimum.
Security
Although it’s quite common for people to feel safer when they can see their IT systems and data, in reality, it’s a lot more secure in the cloud.
Having all your IT equipment located at your premises leaves you at greater risk from theft, fire and other external threats.
Cloud platforms are highly secure in comparison. This includes physical security to the premises or building such as CCTV and access control, and high levels of IT security such as top business-grade firewalls.
Low Maintenance
The final advantage of the cloud is that it’s easy to maintain. All the hard work of patching, updating, and maintaining your on-site servers is now the responsibility of your cloud provider. This saves a great deal of time for you and headaches for your team.
Disadvantages of moving to the cloud
Going from the advantages above, it seems that moving to the cloud is an obvious decision for any business. However, it also has certain disadvantages that you need to be prepared for and have carefully considered before making the move.
Cost
Yes, we’ve included cost under the advantages above, but in some situations it can be a disadvantage too.
If you’re moving your IT systems to one of the big public cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud, you’ll be provided with price calculators to identify how much you’re likely to spend. These should be used with care and often provide no more than an estimate, with actual prices sometimes much higher than anticipated.
In instances like these, it might be cheaper to look at alternative options such as Private Cloud or Hybrid Cloud.
Harder to switch
The biggest concern for most businesses when it comes to the Cloud is feeling you’re giving up control. The fear is, by moving IT systems away, it’s going to be harder to move them back later on if you change your mind.
This is a valid point and makes it even more important to consider both choosing the right platform in the first place and factoring what to do if you change your mind in future. This should all come under your cloud migration strategy.
Applications
A cloud platform simply isn’t the ideal solution for every business. Some applications are not well suited to running in the cloud.
This could be software that has high graphical demands such as graphic design or rendering software, or line-of-business apps that have not been built to work in this type of environment. It’s important to check compatibility of any of your business applications before moving to the cloud.
Reliance on internet line
The final potential disadvantage is an increased reliance on your Internet line.
If your entire business is fully cloud-based, losing the internet connection to your office could affect productivity. It’s important to evaluate if you have the correct line for your business, with suitable SLAs, and possibly a backup line in case of a fault.
Possible risks when moving to the cloud
So, you’ve decided to move to the cloud. This could be a great decision for your business but be careful when planning and carrying out your cloud migration. Here are some of the pitfalls you want to avoid.
Overspending due to not calculating costs correctly
As mentioned in the cost section above, it’s important to accurately calculate your cloud costs. Getting this part wrong could result in you massively overspending in the cloud. This will require good technical knowledge and an understanding of the platform’s pricing. If you need some advice, make sure to contact a competent MSP or consultant for guidance.
Not having a clear strategy
When moving to the cloud, it’s vitally important to have a clear plan in place. This will include the time scales for the project, how you are going to minimise any downtime, which cloud solution you are going to use and a breakdown of the costs.
Downtime and disruption
It’s inevitable there’ll be some level of downtime as part of your cloud migration. If you’re aware of this and include it in your migration strategy, you can work to minimise any disruption by planning accordingly such as doing migration work out of hours.
Should I move my business to the cloud?
As you can see, moving your business to the cloud has some huge benefits like reducing costs, improving scalability, and gaining increased security and reliability. Because of this, the answer will be yes in the majority of instances.
This doesn’t mean that every business is a good candidate though. Some businesses such as those with specific application requirements and businesses without good internet connectivity might not be suitable.
Go through the pros and cons above and evaluate these against your specific requirements to make the most informed decision.
If you need any assistance or advice on moving to the cloud, get in touch with our friendly team. We have carried out numerous cloud migrations and will be able to guide you along the process.