Business owners: Are you ready to go cloud?
While cloud computing is the buzz in the IT world today and businesses are increasingly being encouraged to embrace the cloud the one thing that business owners need to figure out first is whether their business is ready for the cloud. Here are some pointers to help you determine whether your business is ready for the cloud…
What Are Your Goals?
While cloud computing has several perks and its adoption results in savings and increased efficiency those should not be the guiding forces for you to embrace the cloud. You need to determine your business goals first and use IT infrastructure which is suited to your goals. You need not jump on to the cloud computing bandwagon just because other firms are doing so.
What Are Your Business Needs?
You heard it right…what are your business needs? Not what are your IT needs? You need to determine your IT needs in a holistic manner not in isolation from your overall business needs. Cost cuts is not the only justification for adopting cloud computing.
Do You Have a Plan?
You need to have a plan as to how to evolve, embrace, design and implement the cloud. While doing this determine your human and financial resources too.
Work Out the Details
Cloud computing doesn’t automatically bring down costs, accessing the cloud calls for some investment and training too. The key to success with cloud computing is bringing down costs while simplifying the entire process.
Select the Right Partner
One of the most critical decisions you will have to make is who will be your cloud service provider? Some pointers to consider in this regard are:
- Level of service you are looking for vis-a-vis the level of service they guarantee
- What sort of support is available
- At what time is the support available (24X7 support on the phone is ideal)
- How and where is your data stored and protected
With a number of options to explore on this front, the big players like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are often the first choice of many firms. However, exploring alternatives with emerging names in the cloud space like AppZero, Enomaly, Long Jump and Vaultscape, Flexiant, Workbooks, CloudSigma and Cloudmore etc is also a good idea.
What are the Risks?
Finally, last but not the least, you need to think about the risks associated with cloud computing. Safety and security of data together with reliability of the service provider are some pertinent factors to consider.
