In 2013, there were 2.4 billion users of cloud-based services worldwide. This rose to 3.6 billion last year (
statista.com). However, despite this uptake and growth, the journey to the cloud for some feels like a step too far or not the right choice for their company.
So why do people not want to move to the cloud and are their concerns valid? To try and answer this I’m going to take a look at five of the most common objections and (hopefully!) try and debunk them.
1. It’s too expensive
This one comes up a lot, with many thinking that they don’t have the budget to move to the cloud or they don’t want to do away with some of your on-site hardware that was expensive to purchase and is currently doing a good enough job.
The great thing about cloud technology is that it gives you
greater control over your IT costs. When you work out the monthly costs versus maintaining your existing setup you’ll see the potential cost benefits to your company. You only pay for what you need each month which gives you greater freedom to scale up and down.
Take this scenario as an example – you have a new user joining your company. With traditional on-site IT you may need to purchase them a new device and software licences (which can run for at least 12 months). With a cloud solution you aren’t tied into this 12-month license, you pay monthly. Also, as the processing power comes via cloud data centres you don’t need to purchase a traditional PC or laptop as you can purchase a thin-client device which costs a lot less and uses less energy.
This brings me onto other cost savings you might not have considered – reduced utility bills. Moving to the cloud allows you to do away with on-site servers which use a lot of electricity and usually require air-con to keep them cool. So you use less power and it’s better for the environment too – win-win!
More about Cloud Pricing
2. It’s not secure
This is another popular one with many feeling that their data is more secure on-site and their current IT is more resilient than in the cloud. Yes, on-site storage can be very secure and resilient but it does have its drawbacks. For example, should you suffer a fire or a flood how will you get your company back up and running without an off-site back-up? “I have a fireproof safe,” I hear you cry – that’s fine but it will still potentially take days to get your systems back up and users working again. With a cloud solution you get a more resilient option with a much
faster restore.
As we know, users are one of the biggest contributors to security breaches (e.g. falling for scams which lock down files or load viruses onto laptops and networks). With cloud solutions like
hosted desktops no data is stored locally so if you are targeted it’s much safer as your session can be wiped with the hacker unable to get their hands on data or locking anything down. Similarly, if you have a device stolen it can be remotely locked or wiped in seconds to protect your data – can your traditional IT match that?
Cloud solutions are more advanced and offer AI and machine learning to help detect threats that come both externally and internally. Security can now be a full time job, so you need to ask yourself do you have resource to keep on top of this? If not, then switching to cloud solutions or a managed service provider will ease the burden and allow you to leverage their
security expertise to keep your company safe.
More about Cloud Security
3. What happens if you’ve got slow internet or no connection at all?
For some parts of the country where there is low bandwidth or limited 3G and 4G signal, switching to cloud services not been an option. But it doesn’t need to be a barrier anymore due to
improving mobile internet coverage and optimisation that cloud providers can put in place.
If your internet is slow because of low bandwidth, cloud providers like ourselves can optimise connections to only require a small amount of bandwidth. If your internet is slow because of high latency, policies can be put in place to optimise for latent connections, to ensure best possible performance.
But what about when there is no internet available at all? Well, using content collaboration offline editing of files can be enabled, and it can be set to use built in features to edit Microsoft Office documents natively, without requiring access to Office applications.
More about Cloud Flexibility
4. Our industry has strict compliance standards that our current IT meets
In highly regulated industries you quite rightly worry about your sensitive data being compromised. You also may have spent time obtaining accreditations for your IT infrastructure which enable you to meet compliance standards and pass audits.
As mentioned above, advanced security is what cloud providers bring to the table. Many will already have the accreditations you need and even offer more on top which would take your security way beyond where it currently is. They are constantly working hard to gain and maintain these accreditations so why spend valuable time getting them yourself when you can leverage their expertise and multiple accreditations.
For example, we we’re the first UK cloud provider to be ISO 27001 accredited and we have BS 10012, G-Cloud and Cyber-Essentials to name just a few of
our accreditations. We’re confident we can offer a more secure solution than any on-site setup and would be able to pass industry audits as we’ve done so before.
More about Cloud Governance
5. It would be too disruptive to business activity
You probably know that one day you’ll need to embrace the cloud but feel it’s too much work to do a full cloud migration at the moment as it may affect day-to-day business.
This is fair enough as it’s normal to worry about teething problems and potential downtime for users especially if you’re worried cloud products won’t match the performance of traditional IT. But when is a good time? Your company will always be busy so surely it’s better to make changes before you’re forced to when on-site hardware starts to fail.
The key to moving to the cloud is to realise it doesn’t need to be done all at once. Chances are you’re already using some cloud products already like
Microsoft Office 365, so you could follow this up by moving one application at a time into the cloud. This allows you to check performance each time rather than committing to an overnight full cloud migration approach and should be easier to stomach with less disruption to day-to-day business.
More about Cloud setups
Still not convinced?
If you’re still unsure about using cloud services or if you have another objection which hasn’t been mentioned here please drop us a line and we’ll be happy to chat with you and show you how cloud technology can
improve security and
productivity for your business.
