Many businesses are moving to cloud computing and infrastructure because they believe they can solve many business problems and save on overall costs. While this is true for many, it is not the case for everyone. The cloud is only as good as you make it, and if you’re not utilizing the cloud and your processes the right way you could be costing your business time and money.
You’re Not Creating Better Processes
Process, process, process. It’s one of the primary goals of any business, to streamline processes. This makes everything more efficient and ensures tasks are completed on time, on budget, and done correctly. Moving to the cloud is essentially worthless if you can’t streamline your processes by utilizing the advantages the cloud offers such as mobility and collaboration.
You’re Not Fully Utilizing Resources
Many businesses believe that once they move to the cloud they can either reduce personnel or move them to different tasks. While this may be true for some, it’s certainly not the case for all. You still need IT personnel on your team to be able to handle everyday tasks and monitoring among other aspects. However, what often happens is once a move to the cloud has been established, certain personnel are given tasks that are either unrelated to their expertise , or personnel aren’t trained to operate efficiently in this new environment. This can also lead to lost time, money, and resources.
You’re Still Using In-House Infrastructure
Sure, for some organizations using a “hybrid” system of in-house and cloud infrastructure is the perfect combination. However, for smaller businesses who need to focus on other areas of the business this can be a true killer. You made a move to the cloud for a reason, to reduce costs and eliminate many of the in-house issues that arise from managing your infrastructure on your own – so why continue to use your own hardware?
Many small business owners want to maximize their hardware resources so they find (or make up) ways to utilize their preexisting hardware. Again, you moved to the cloud for a reason, so why make things harder on yourself? Let your cloud infrastructure do its job, while you focus on growing your bottom line.
There are many advantages to cloud infrastructure: reduced costs, flexibility, streamlining, and more. However, the advantages are only advantages if you take advantage of them – right?. That’s a mouthful for sure, but it’s the right way to think about it.
In essence something is only as good as you make it. Take a racecar for example, you might have a 600 horsepower engine but if you’re only using 300 of it, you’re not using the car to its full potential to win the race. It’s easy to get sold on the cloud for its many benefits, just make sure you’re using it to your full advantage.