Infrastructure in the Cloud
The third question of the VLCM IT Survey, and the topic of this post, addressed organizations’ plans on implementing cloud infrastructure into their networks. The question was simply put: “does your organization have an initiative to develop a cloud infrastructure?” The resulting answers were rather intriguing too.
Of those professionals surveyed, it was a complete split. Fifty percent confirmed that they had an initiative to develop a cloud infrastructure, and fifty percent confirmed that they did not. While this illustrates a clear division in the adoption of cloud technology on enterprise levels, it also means that there are plenty of organization to educate on the advantages of cloud computing.
In reality, both sides of the survey may be sufficiently educated on the matter, and perhaps the fifty percent who answered "no" to a cloud infrastructure initiative make up those who haven’t gotten around to it yet and those who have concerns with its security and functionality. Well, for those who haven’t gotten around to it yet, time will tell, but for those who are concerned with security or functionality, here are some things to consider.
Security in the Cloud
For organizations whose data is highly valuable and confidential, security concerns are certainly warranted. In such cases, people want to know where their data lives, who has access to it, and how it’s being maintained. With infrastructure in the cloud, these three aspects of data control are brought to question. However, such apprehensions are becoming less of a concern as cloud solutions are growing and progressing. If you represent a large international bank, perhaps company policy will keep cloud infrastructure out of the picture for a good long while—if not indefinitely, but if you’re a smaller business or even a larger business with outsourced-infrastructure needs, focusing on the advantages of cloud computing can serve you well.
Here are some of the main advantages of working in cloud infrastructure:
Not only will you save initial costs on infrastructure, but you could be saving a considerable amount of money as your data needs grow.
For small businesses, cloud infrastructure is a very helpful service. Where a company doesn’t have the overhead to invest in the capital expense posed by procuring servers, cloud infrastructure remedies this problem by providing the space needed at an affordable cost.
When you outsource your infrastructure, you likewise outsource the need for managing the hardware. This frees up a lot of time for your IT staff to focus on what matters most.