The cloud is one of the modern trends that have fundamentally changed the way businesses IT operate. And while the startup environment has been quick to adapt to it, many companies, especially those in conservative industries, are still hesitant. According to a PwC survey, security concerns keep 63% of companies from moving to the cloud. This is despite the fact that leading banks, which are subject to a number of regulations and have high security requirements, have recently decided to switch. But even the largest cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, Google) are bucking the trend, which in addition to performance also offers comprehensive support and a whole range of services that cover the needs of most companies.
In terms of security, there are still many prejudices against the cloud, and some companies prefer to run their own servers to have the data at their headquarters and therefore physically under control. This requirement can also be met when using the cloud, the basis is always to understand the needs and concerns of the company in question - on this basis it is then possible to propose an optimal solution and minimize the risks.
Avoid human error
Company representatives who have to decide whether to move to the cloud usually come across familiar arguments - flexibility in system expansion and performance enhancement, decentralization, availability from almost any part of the world, and resilience. But why should company bosses undergo the whole demanding process when they can simply and cheaply buy additional servers as they have been used to?
Moving to the cloud requires looking to the future. The biggest advantage is that you do not have to hire new experts or administrators to take care of the servers. The cost is not only in the purchase of hardware, but also in the salaries of the staff that will have to take care of the ever-growing system. In addition, more staff naturally means more maintenance costs, more security and more room for error.
The security check is usually the transition to the cloud itself
Many managers think their system is secure when no one else can see into it. But nothing is further from the truth. Unless a company has essentially isolated its IT from the rest of the world, it's difficult to develop a secure and reliable system on your own. Rather, the opposite is true; in practice, one often encounters cumbersome applications with a complex architecture with which their creators have little familiarity. The transition to the cloud is usually the first security review that the company goes through.
The security audit helps uncover critical parts of the system. It then needs to be broken down into parts, non-functioning parts repaired and a new architecture designed. The respective company must weigh up whether it wants to move completely to the cloud or whether it wants to continue to leave the critical infrastructure on its own servers - and thus opt for the so-called hybrid cloud. In this case, normal security processes are not enough; you have to look at the system as a whole and ideally consider where the provider's responsibility begins and ends. Without clearly defined barriers, you are once again creating problems for yourself in the future.
Know your provider in advance
When moving to the cloud, choose the company you want to trust with your data in advance. With local companies, they may have an inadequate service offering, limited coverage, and non-compliance with standards like GDPR. With global players, the biggest disadvantage may be their size. In that case, you can barely reach your provider and not even think about doing an audit. A good clue is whether the provider in question has a local office and meets the required security standards, including the GDPR mentioned earlier. Also remember that it is not enough to audit the provider itself, but also the entire chain, for example, if it uses third-party software.
Last but not least, do not forget about vendor lock, i.e. absolute dependency on the provider's infrastructure or system. The cloud usually scales as your business grows and the number of tools you use grows. These are often unique and any change is then too expensive or even impossible. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare future scenarios that will help you deal with vendor lock.
The cloud is not only an infrastructure, but also a set of necessary services
Large cloud providers not only provide the infrastructure itself (IaaS - Infrastructure as a Service), but also an entire platform with a wide range of integrated tools (PaaS - Platform as a Service), such as databases, tools for data backup and system monitoring, all optimized for hardware or performance. Some providers also add their own office tools for the day-to-day operation of the business (G Suite, Office 365), but also enable rapid deployment of CRM or BI.
These are things that a normal enterprise would struggle to keep running, in terms of time and money. Another advantage of the cloud is that support and security are handled by entire teams of developers and specialists. Native backup support, for example, has such a high SLA (service-level agreement) that data loss is virtually impossible. The cloud is also highly resistant to DDoS attacks (which consist of sending a huge number of requests, often from a large number of computers, with the aim of overwhelming the server and thereby shutting down the service) - the system detects them and redirects the onslaught outside the company's system, so there are no outages.
The biggest risk is not the technology, but the employees
The biggest risk in enterprises is the human factor. In the case of the cloud, this means first and foremost mastering administrative security, which means limiting access and rights to changes according to roles on the team. The second area is managing the devices that log on to the internal network - you need to verify that the hardware in question is secure. Ideally, the company will provide its employees with their own devices for work. Otherwise, the risk must be handled with special software.
The cloud itself is fully encrypted, so no one can get the idea that someone could access your data. The providers' employees are usually ISO certified, and the system also immediately detects if someone is working with the data without authorization.
The cloud grows with the business
Every company wants to grow and expand its business. Today, this is no longer possible without the development of the IT system. The cloud grows with the company, additional power can be obtained cheaply and with a few clicks. It also overcomes the risks typical of on-premise systems, it can handle large load peaks, such as the peak load in the e-store before Christmas, or it is used by power companies to calculate network capacity. It is also very easy to expand to a new country. This is precisely why it is so popular with startups planning to expand abroad.
Global availability is also linked to the trend toward remote collaboration. According to PwC, using the cloud boosts employee performance by up to 30%, aside from the aforementioned savings on employees taking care of the infrastructure. In short, it's an unstoppable global trend that both small businesses and software giants are jumping on. Atlassian or SAP, for example, are moving away from server solutions and moving their services to the cloud, which is only a monthly expense for companies. This eliminates many worries and allows them to focus on their own business.