Well, there’s no doubt about it, we are living in a cloud enhanced world. No matter what you are doing in life, whether it’s uploading pictures of the family, keeping track of friends on social media, or working remotely, the fact remains that the cloud is a part of our everyday lives in one way or another.
So why are organizations so hesitant to adopt a cloud infrastructure? I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. What I can tell you from speaking with customers is that the reason extends across infrastructure, business as well as, let’s face it, an overall new way of thinking about what is the best way to mitigate risk.
When we talk to business leaders the idea of moving from a CAPEX model to an OPEX model is appealing for pretty much everything but IT. They still look at IT assets and think about budget cycles and performance/capacity per dollar. This can put them into situations where they are purchasing hardware on 3-5 year cycles and after 2 years finding out that the hardware they are invested in isn’t doing what it needs to do, but at that point, they are committed. They may be locked into a certain vendor or platform and the pain of getting off that just seems overwhelming or they may have concerns about moving to the cloud in general.
When we talk to people, they usually express a few shared concerns.
Security and Compliance – How secure is the cloud? Will the IT security team shoot down this cloud project because they aren’t adhering to some standard? Where’s the responsibility lie and where does the delineation of duty happen?
Networking – Complex networking, familiarity with on-site networking gear, and just the headache of trying to do it all in the cloud causes many organizations to shy away from larger cloud projects.
Cloud Expertise/Management – How am I going to manage all of this? Do I need to have my team learn all new interfaces and workflows? Most IT teams are running full throttle as is, and the idea of learning entirely new jobs to do what they are already doing can be daunting.
Cost Control– Finally, the cost really plays into this decision. Where are the costs for support? What hidden costs will bite me on the first bill? What does bandwidth charge even mean and how do I maintain visibility and control over all of this?
In our recent IaaS Webinar, we address these concerns and much more. You will also hear first hand from a customer who made the transition to a cloud-based infrastructure. Be sure to listen to the webinar to learn more from our customer on how he was successful in convincing leadership to adopt the 11:11 cloud technology while also quickly completing the project and driving down IT costs for their organization.
So hop on and listen to this on-demand webinar at IaaS Webinar and see how 11:11 Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) can help accelerate your IT initiatives and propel your business forward.