In a recent article from Forbes called “9 ‘Worst Practices’ to Avoid with Cloud Computing,” one kind of mistake that comes up throughout the list is the tendency of businesses to make impulsive, ill-prepared moves to various cloud-based services.
Cloud computing has many advantages for small or medium-sized businesses, but the benefits of the cloud are only available to businesses that rely on expert IT assistance and make judicious, well-informed decisions.
What are some of the ways that businesses adopt cloud-based services with insufficient foresight and preparation?
Businesses may select cloud-based providers out of loyalty to a particular company or a sense of comfortable familiarity with some of their other services.Â
For instance, a business owner who’s had a positive experience selling merchandise on Amazon may pick Amazon’s cloud services, even though the two aren’t related to each other; the fact that Amazon might be a reliable distributor of goods doesn’t necessarily mean that some of the cloud-based services they offer are best suited for the business in question.
Other times, business owners and employees aren’t prepared for what they need to do in order to successfully manage cloud-based services. For one thing, they may not understand all of the service models (e.g. software as service, platform as service, infrastructure as service).
And they may not have been trained specifically in understanding and working with these different cloud services. (This is one area where obtaining the assistance of an IT company to manage your services would come in handy.) Employees may also be resistant to sudden major changes in IT that they have to accommodate and shoulder all on their own.
Lastly, businesses sometimes don’t give thought to how shifting to cloud-based services will specifically affect day-to-day business operations, including unforeseen costs and outages in service.
For making informed decisions about cloud computing that are best for your business, contact us. Not only can we give you expert advice on which services to choose; we can also manage them for you, leaving you more time and energy to focus on growing your business.
