Image from Citrix Systems, Inc.
Cloud computing is the current rage. With cloud computing you don’t have to worry about running your own data center, or setting up a series of file servers. While there are many things to be said for cloud computing, there are also several important considerations to keep in mind.
Is the cloud secure?
Someone else houses your business data, but the need to keep it secure is no less important or necessary. If anything, the need for security has increased. Your data now resides with a provider that offers this same service to hundreds or thousands of other businesses. This makes it especially important for you to know what methods the cloud provider uses to secure your data. Do they encrypt the data? What kind of encryption do they use? How do they protect it from being stolen? Keep in mind that the old outsourcing outage holds—no one cares as much about your data as you and your staff.
Is the cloud reliable?
Servers fail, data centers go down and, when they do, mission critical data becomes unavailable. It can happen to a cloud provider just as easily as it can to your internal systems. If you think that the cloud provider is so big that failure is out of the question, consider that Google suffered a major outage last month disrupting services to 14% of their users. It pays to find out what means of backup and redundancy the cloud provider has on their sites.
How reliable is your ISP?
Speaking of reliability, cloud computing introduces a new reliability issue—the connection between your business location and the cloud. What happens if the cloud provider's systems are up, but there is an outage in your ISP? Previously, this kind of event would mean that your data would simply become local. With cloud computing it becomes non-existent. Your business may not function if it is cut off from its business data. Therefore, it makes sense to have some form of diverse backup connectivity just in case this event should occur.
What Service Level Agreement (SLA) does the cloud provider offer?
The reliability, the security and the kind of 24x7x365 support you can expect from the cloud provider should be clearly spelled out in an SLA. Consider it a red flag if there is no SLA or if the cloud provider is reluctant to show you their SLA. Also, if there is an SLA, know what it says. Then plan to hold the cloud provider's feet to the fire and demand that they meet the requirements of the SLA. Never overlook or excuse any cloud provider who cannot meet their own SLA.
What are the bandwidth limitations between your location and the cloud?
Bandwidth follows the “weakest link in the chain” principle. If there are bottlenecks in your network, in your gateway routers, in your ISP or at the cloud provider's network, access to your data will be affected. It pays to know what you can expect by way of network throughput at all locations so that access to the cloud is not significantly slower than access to your data locally has been.
What about latency?
Latency is the often overlooked and just as often critical factor in cloud computing. Even if you have all the bandwidth you will ever need to the cloud, if latency is high it will slow down access to your business data. Therefore, it is worth the effort and the dollars to consider minimizing the latency in your connection to the cloud provider. This could mean improvements in your local network, changing ISPs, or even selecting another cloud provider. It also means that you need to know what the maximum latency is with the cloud provider's system, the ISP and your network.
Cloud computing can be an efficient and a less worrisome way to provide access to your business data. But, as we have seen, it is not without issues and concerns. It pays to worry just a little when it comes to doing business in the cloud.
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