Why Transition From Web Hosting To Cloud Isn't A Walk In The Park

When it comes to any type of modern technology, every bit of it is improving on a daily basis and there will always be room for progress and innovation. Web hosting and Cloud industry definitely haven’t reached their pinnacles yet, and we can only assume where exactly they are headed and what we can expect in near future.

Shift to Cloud Hosting

Big companies and organizations are rapidly moving to the Cloud and the demand for it is already starting to overshadow traditional shared server hosting environments. For many companies, shared and dedicated hosting are being rendered inefficient, since they often require clients to pay for the space on a web hosting company’s server that is not actually being used. This is why an increasing number of companies moves parts of their workloads and applications to the cloud.

As Cloud hosting is growing rapidly, the overall worth of cloud hosting is expected to reach a valuation of $121 billion in 2015, according to a 2014 report by MarketsandMarkets. We will almost certainly experience a further detachment of software from hardware during the upcoming year. Small businesses will as well soon incorporate the new technology and began their own shift to the Cloud, however, will all that be a walk in the park or is actually one huge jungle out there?

Park or Jungle?

INetU and THINKStrategies recently conducted a study called “The Adventures of Moving to the Cloud”, which surveyed 358 companies with a goal to show CIOs and business managers that migrating to the cloud isn’t as easy as they might think.

Almost half of the companies that participated in the survey reported they had either failed or had to put their cloud hosting implementations on halt. Some claimed they had to redo their budgeting, and a staggering 70% were forced to make changes to their design. By comparison, 27% of respondents said they were “extremely satisfied” by their experience with a cloud vendor, according to Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director over at THINKStrategies.

Kaplan further notes that these digits clearly point to the willingness of contemporary companies to migrate to the new infrastructure, but that this doesn’t mean there are no associated pitfalls. In fact, he states he is a realist, who is well aware of the potential problems such a grand transition can cause despite the promising benefits. Certainly, the difference between some traditional ecosystems such as VPS hosting or dedicated servers and the cloud requires companies to rethink their migration strategies in order to ensure the safe stay in the cloud.     

However, this is certainly not the only problem companies may be facing in this stage. Namely, as the report suggests, security remains the biggest issue and the toughest hurdle to jump over with 27% of respondents citing the security problem as the most difficult one. Compliance is a close second with 20%, while 13% cited capacity planning, monitoring 9%, while provisioning and billing are last with 4%.

Overcoming the Security Issue
Coping with security in the cloud is still a burning issue, but there are certain steps companies can take to overcome it. Public Sector Enterprise ICT recently held a seminar in London during which they found four key ways to overcome the issue with security in the cloud:

-  build your knowledge up,

-  be a smart buyer,

-  bust the ‘in-house is best’ myth,

-  make the ‘quick wins’ a number 1 priority