In 2013, why are there still cloud-sceptics out there?

The cloud has existed for a number of years now and the benefits – flexibility, scalability, no CAPEX – are clear for all to see. Yet not everyone is a cloud-believer and there are some who still stick rigidly to an on-premise model. Why is this and what can be done to help make people realise the benefits of cloud for software, platform and infrastructure? 

Convincing the cloud doubters
Much of the cloud’s growth in use has been with the SME market, with many larger enterprises choosing to ignore the benefits of the cloud and unable to see beyond the perceived risk of not storing their mission-critical applications and data close to hand.

This is curious to say the least and suggests a highly conservative approach to business. Individual companies must keep banging the drum for cloud services and hope that collectively as an industry we can convince larger enterprises the cloud is just as beneficial to them as it is to smaller businesses.

Three points to convince
Whilst different cloud providers will have different propostions there are general beenfits to be gleaned. Three main points to emphasise when convincing cloud doubters are:

1) The cloud is no less secure than on-premise. The idea that the cloud is a ‘risky’ choice is outdated to say the least and it has never been easier to safeguard your data.

2) Cost – the cloud is not a ‘cheap’ option, especially in the highest performance cloud. But there are cost benefits for any business. There are less (or no) CAPEX costs, ideal for anyone with limited capital for hardware and infrastructure. TCO is lower and pay-as-you-use payment models are hugely attractive. For example, we provide a big data infrastructure that supplies the computing power to enables users to get the most from their big data. But sometimes customers only need that much power for an hour or two, so why should they pay for any more than that?

3) It frees IT staff for more strategic deployment. Cloud services (and IaaS especially) are delivered quickly and without the need for on-going IT maintenance. This means IT departments can focus time and resource elsewhere in the business, such as developing new apps and innovations or implementing mobile working schemes that improve productivity.

We are big believers in the cloud at Bigstep but there are times when businesses do need more computing power than many virtual environments can deliver. Which is why there is no hypervisor with Bigstep, customers get more power than with any other providers and still reap all the benefits of the cloud outlined above.

The cloud is here to stay but still has some growing up to do, particularly in terms of how providers speak with larger enterprises. But given time, the power and flexibility will prove too compelling a proposition to ignore any longer.