Advantages and Disadvantages of Cloud Based Enterprise Applications

Cloud Based  Enterprise Applications are taking the world by storm. With every major tech company in the list, Amazon, Google and Microsoft leading, the cloud computing market is booming. The power of cloud computing can streamline majority of IT processes and make daily computing much easier. It is exactly not something that you can make the switch in a day or in a month. Unless you are ready, you should not take. Lets analyze the Pros and Cons of Cloud based Enterprise Applications.

Advantages:

1. Accessibility.
   
   
   
   • The Application becomes available anywhere, anytime with an internet connection. This creates an environment where your business customers can collaborate from multiple locations together.
   
   
   
   


2. No need to maintain Hardware
   
   
   
   • As you will not have anything to store physically, a physical storage center is no longer needed. You should rely on backups though for a disaster recovery.
   
   
   
   


3. Cost per head
   
   
   
   • The cost can get lower significantly as resources are shared between businesses' customers. It may enable you to utilize more power and time to improve company infrastructure.
   
   
   
   


4. Flexibility for growth.
   
   
   
   • The majority of cloud hosts will let you scale across globe as you need. The costs can be highly flat rated and get lower when your application scales out in horizontal pattern.
   
   
   
   


5. Efficient recovery
   
   
   
   • The downtime of these services are very low due to high computational capacity and the virtual nature of computing instances. This will let you achieve multiple points of failure for the very lowest cost you can imagine.
   
   
   
   

Disadvantages:

1. Implementation
   
   
   
   • The hardest part could be customizing your business application for cloud based infrastructure where you have certain constraints.
   
   
   
   


2. No longer in control
   
   
   
   • When moving services to the cloud, you are handing over your data and information. For companies who have an in-house IT staff, they will be unable to handle issues on their own.
   
   
   
   


3. May not get all the features.
   
   
   
   • All cloud providers doesn't provide you the same services. Even the major competitors vastly contrast in their feature sets.
   
   
   
   


4. Doesn't mean you should do away with servers.
   
   
   
   • You may have fewer servers to handle which means less for your IT staff to handle, but that doesn't mean you can let go of all your servers and staff. While it may seem costly to have data centers and a cloud infrastructure, redundancy is key for backup and recovery.
   
   
   
   


5. No Redundancy.
   
   
   
   • A cloud server is not redundant nor is it backed up. As technology may fail here and there, avoid getting burned by purchasing a redundancy plan. Although it is an extra cost, in most cases it will be well worth it.
   
   
   
   


6. Bandwidth issues.
   
   
   
   • For ideal performance, clients have to plan accordingly and not pack large amounts of servers and storage devices into a small set of data centers.
   
   
   
   

Questions to ask yourself when moving towards to the cloud:

1. Since my data is not in my control, can I trust that my data will be secure?


2. Is it truly accessible anytime? What happens if the cloud fails?


3. Will my provider ensure I am getting top performance of my cloud services? Can I test this to make sure I am getting my money's worth?


4. Will I be able to move applications and data around seamlessly? And is it accessible from anywhere?


5. How much could it lower costs? Is having additional in-house software worth it for backup purposes?