Pros And Cons Of Cloud Computing Services For The Enterprise


By Reese Jones. Posted on 24 April 2013
                                                                        Image source: technected.com
When all your computing services are on the cloud, work becomes much easier. Case studies have shown that cloud computing services often save enterprises significant amounts of time and money. Utilizing cloud-powered apps (i.e: Google Voice) on capable smartphones like the iPhone 5, Galaxy S3, or the Blackberry Z10, is also a smart and cost-effective move.

However, let’s bear in mind that there’s no such thing as perfect. Although Cloud computing has many advantages, it still has its own flaws which should not be ignored. Let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of the Cloud.

Pros:

Hardware Cost Reduction - With Cloud computing, companies save money in many ways, most obviously there’s no need for expensive and bulky hardware that takes up office space and needs regular updating. Plus, a paperless office is one step closer now that everything’s on the cloud.

Maintenance - With no in-house servers, you can shrink the IT team. The service providers themselves will be the ones to maintain data and resolve any issues that may occur within the system.

Better Operations - Since more expenses will be directed to operations instead of going to equipment and personnel, the company should be more productive. This should be the case for start-ups especially, since cloud computing is cheap; there’s no need to invest in servers and other in-house equipment for data storage and computing.

Scalability - Just like electricity and water expenses, you only have to pay for what you use in cloud computing. And when a company grows, accommodating to more server space is much easier and faster.

Competition - As Cloud computing involves far less investment in hardware, software and even personnel it is much easier to change services to a different provider. Thus you can take advantage of technological advances and cheaper rates much easier than with traditional IT.

Cons

Privacy and Security – When your data was previously stored on your company’s servers, you were responsible for security, but now your Cloud provider is in charge and this is a worry for some. As Cloud servers are accessed by many people, they are theoretically more open to being hacked. Cloud providers would deny this is a realistic problem however.

Loss of expertise – Few things make the finance department happier than being able to cut costs. However, if you have laid off a large swathe of your IT department, you may find you’re missing some vital expertise should things go wrong.

Added costs – One of the major advantages of Cloud computing is cost - in plain speak it’s cheaper. You should have clear service-level agreements (SLAs) with the company who is providing you with the Cloud computing so you know exactly what services come as part of the package. This way you won’t end up paying extra for what you thought you’d already paid for.

Availability – Using a Cloud-based server is more reliable than a traditional one, as the service provider will change to one of their many servers that are working. However, problems with availability can still occur - internet connections can sometimes go down, without which you can’t get access to your Cloud services.

About the Author

Reese Jones is a freelancer interested in anything ipad, cinema, startup companies and companies like Apple and MySpace. Outside of writing she loves playing PS3 and she's always available on Google Plus or Twitter



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