Cloud computing challenges have always been there. Companies are increasingly aware of the business value that cloud computing brings and are taking steps towards transition to the cloud. A smooth transition entails a thorough understanding of the benefits as well as challenges involved. Like any new technology, the adoption of cloud computing is not free from issues. Some of the most important challenges are as follows.
The main challenge to cloud computing is how it addresses the security and privacy concerns of businesses thinking of adopting it. The fact that the valuable enterprise data will reside outside the corporate firewall raises serious concerns. Hacking and various attacks to cloud infrastructure would affect multiple clients even if only one site is attacked. These risks can be mitigated by using security applications, encrypted file systems, data loss software, and buying security hardware to track unusual behavior across servers.
It is difficult to assess the costs involved due to the on-demand nature of the services. Budgeting and assessment of the cost will be very difficult unless the provider has some good and comparable benchmarks to offer. The service-level agreements (SLAs) of the provider are not adequate to guarantee the availability and scalability. Businesses will be reluctant to switch to cloud without a strong service quality guarantee.
Businesses should have the leverage of migrating in and out of the cloud and switching providers whenever they want, and there should be no lock-in period. Cloud computing services should have the capability to integrate smoothly with the on-premise IT.
Cloud providers still lack round-the-clock service; this results in frequent outages. It is important to monitor the service being provided using internal or third-party tools. It is vital to have plans to supervise usage, SLAs, performance, robustness, and business dependency of these services.
Businesses can save money on hardware but they have to spend more for the bandwidth. This can be a low cost for smaller applications but can be significantly high for the data-intensive applications. Delivering intensive and complex data over the network requires sufficient bandwidth. Because of this, many businesses are waiting for a reduced cost before switching to the cloud.
All these challenges should not be considered as road blocks in the pursuit of cloud computing. It is rather important to give serious consideration to these issues and the possible ways out before adopting the technology.
By Jack Rosenblum
