7 Significant Challenges of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is becoming more prominent these days. This technology is used to utilize big data and software applications online.
A good example of cloud technology is services like Dropbox or iCloud. You can create a document online and share it with others without using your computer’s drive.
Despite being so useful, cloud computing has its challenges. Given that this technology has not been around for that long, developers are still trying to figure out ways to make even more out of it and overcome certain downsides.
Below, you will find a list of 7 significant challenges that cloud computing technology faces and what they mean for the future of the cloud.
1. Security
As expected, security is one of the standout problems with cloud computing. Many experts agree that overcoming potential threats like malware and viruses is not always easy.
Developers are the ones who have to react to the latest threats, though there have been some positive developments in some precautionary tools that ought to be quite useful in the future.
If clouds store irrelevant data, the breach is less likely. On the other hand, businesses or individuals that deal with confidential information need to invest a lot to ensure that the data does not get leaked or lost.
2. Lack of Expertise
It is the inadequacy of resources and expertise that can also become a significant issue. Because cloud computing is a relatively new concept that advances quite fast, enterprises are finding it difficult to keep up with the pace.
The lack of employees who possess the necessary knowledge and can consider themselves experts is not that easy to find. The current trends indicate that businesses will look for IT specialists who know a lot about cloud computing in addition to other expertise.
3. Costs
Managing costs when you are on a tight budget is already a challenge, and cloud computing can present even more problems. Of course, if we are talking about individual needs, then the issue is hardly worth noting.
For instance, if you need a cloud account to free up some space on your computer, you can make do with a free plan.
The situation is different for businesses that need to handle vast amounts of data. Mistakes occur, and restoring the information can take a lot of resources, and we are not talking about just money.
Overall, though, cloud computing can save companies money because they do not have to invest in storage hardware. At the same time, with constant changes, it might be difficult to estimate and predict the needs for cloud computing, which results in overspending.
4. Migration
The migration challenge refers to moving an application that is already on a cloud to a different cloud environment. If you were to create a new app and transfer it to a cloud from your computer, for instance, the process is pretty straightforward.
However, due to incompatibility, downtime, slow migration, security, and syncing data, migration can pose a real challenge.
5. Integration
Some enterprises might find it difficult to integrate their on-premise applications with cloud environments. The issue lies in incompatibility, and finding the right cloud service is not always possible.
Whether it is worth overhauling an entire application code just to accommodate it to cloud service comes down to a company’s needs and available resources. And while waiting for a new cloud computing service to appear is also an option, there are no guarantees that such a service will be compatible with on-premise applications.
6. Performance
After moving data to clouds, companies become reliant on the services. The uptime for most cloud services is almost always 100 percent, but outages happen, and it is how one overcomes them that means a lot.
A cloud service provider should have safety nets that function as a means to access data despite an outage. Otherwise, businesses will run into serious issues, particularly if they operate in niches that often require real-time access to stored cloud data.
7. Privacy
Similar to security, data privacy is worth a shout as well. Since businesses want to ensure the privacy of their own or other user data, there is merit in developing a personal private cloud. Doing so would also let one avoid potential incompatibility issues with on-premise applications because the whole thing would be in-house, including the data.
Having said that, developing a cloud from scratch is not that simple, and if an enterprise wishes to do that, it will have to invest a lot of resources in the venture.
Conclusion
All in all, you should be more aware of potential cloud challenges now that you have read this article. Despite the fact that problems in cloud computing are somewhat prominent, they are to be expected, and overcoming them is not out of the realm of impossibility.
Since cloud computing will continue to gain popularity in the future, we can expect to see this technology becoming more efficient, which is bound to result in fewer challenges.
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