Does it really have a silver lining?

They say that every cloud has a silver lining but is this true about cloud computing. If the providers of cloud services would have you believe, it is true but is cloud computing the answer? It is quick to provision, you have instant resilience, you don’t need to worry about backups, DR or offsite storage. In fact it does look rosy, as I have shown, there are plenty of advantages to cloud computing, after all we have our own online backup that we provide to customers that is offering a backup solution in the cloud, but there are a lot of things to consider that they don’t tell you.

The first thing about cloud computing is the connectivity, the host of the cloud may have enough network bandwidth, but do you? A local area network typically runs at 100 – 1000mbps whereas a connection to the cloud is limited to your internet connection speed, typically the slowest part of your network.

The second thing to consider is where is your data residing? How much security does it have? As the owner of the data you are the data controller but you are outsourcing the security of your data. Regulation states where sensitive can be stored so if it is in the cloud, how can you be sure where it is?

The third thing to consider is do you want to get tied to the service. It is quite difficult to decouple services once they are in use, try to move your email, in bulk, when it is hosted in the cloud and realise how hard it is so you effectively are tied to the provider.

The fourth reason is it is expensive if you use it in anger. Great for start-ups or provisioning temporary storage but not good for long term use but difficult to break free from.

So does cloud computing have a silver lining? Only sometimes!