4 Benefits and Risks of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing refers to when you use a cloud-based model to store your company’s information, run the software suite you prefer, and do things of that nature. You can do that instead of having physical servers somewhere onsite that you must continually monitor. Many companies will do this in 2023, both large and small.
If you have a company located in Melbourne and you’re thinking about using cloud computing, you should know about both the benefits and risks that go along with that. We will run through some of those in detail right now.
No Physical Servers
Let us begin by describing some of the potential benefits you can enjoy if you go with the cloud-based computing model. As we just mentioned, if you use the cloud, then you do not need to maintain any physical servers.
If you do not have any servers, then you don’t need a physical location where you can keep them. You have no need to rent or purchase a facility large enough to house them.
This can save your business entity a significant amount of cash every month, quarter, and fiscal year. Renting or buying a facility large enough to house your servers can take up a large chunk of your operating budget. When you eliminate this expense, you can allocate that money toward other parts of your business, such as your marketing budget and product research and development.
You also don’t need to guard your servers or pay for the electricity to power them. That’s another way to shrink your budget that company owners and operators will enjoy.
Another Entity Does the Maintenance for Your Cloud
If you use a cloud for your company’s computing needs, then you also do not need to do any of the maintenance involved with that cloud. The company that offers you the cloud-based service does it for you.
That means you don’t need to allocate so much money for an IT staff. If you do have any IT staff members, they can dedicate themselves to other tasks since the cloud-based computing you use will likely be offered by a company as a software-as-a-service model.
Without needing to have IT staff members who will spend a lot of their time watching over your physical servers, you might feel that you don’t need to retain any full-time IT specialists at all. Instead, you can hire individuals in the IT niche for one-off projects.
Not having full-time IT staffers on the payroll means you don’t need to give them job perks like a salary, a 401K program, a healthcare plan, or paid vacation time. Instead, you can hire them on a strictly per-project basis.
Security Vulnerabilities
Cloud-based computing does have some potential drawbacks, though. Security vulnerabilities are almost always at the top of that list.
As a consumer, you might be accessing cloud resources that are shared rather than being physically isolated. There are some inherent security vulnerabilities that go along with that model.
If you are sharing a cloud resource with many other consumers, each one of them has access to the cloud. That means there are many more individuals with security clearances. When that happens, there’s generally a higher chance for someone to gain unauthorized access. If that occurs, they might try to steal your company’s sensitive information.
If the service you are utilizing has the latest cybersecurity tools in place, though, there’s a good chance that these vulnerabilities can be mitigated. Careful monitoring by the admins should set your mind at ease in regard to this issue
Minimal Governance Control
The cloud operators set up and monitor the infrastructure that you use with this model. That is helpful because you don’t need so many IT staff members, but sometimes, you may wish you had more control.
A cloud provider that proves untrustworthy might sell or leak sensitive information that you are exchanging with your employees via the cloud. Maybe you are discussing proprietary information, and some of that gets out.
A cloud provider would have to be unscrupulous to do something like that intentionally. This kind of thing is a rarity, but it is not completely unheard of in the IT world. This is why you should ensure that you’ve found a reliable source when you are looking at the different cloud service providers that are available today.
For the most part, you’ll find that the benefits of using cloud computing outweigh the risk factors. If you select the right provider, you’ll likely enjoy the flexibility this model offers.
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