Cloud computing is the vehicle with which modern enterprise organisations drive their digital transformation initiatives.
Cloud adoption provides an opportunity for organisations to progress their digital transformation initiatives, scale rapidly and develop their digital service offerings with reduced time and cost overheads, resulting in more agile and efficient working practices and increased value to customers.
However, despite the clear advantages of cloud adoption, many organisations, or factions within organisations, have resisted cloud adoption at a management level.
Part of the resistance to cloud adoption is due to misinformation. To tackle the confusion, we discuss some of the most prevalent misconceptions that organisations have concerning the cloud.
While some of these points present valid concerns which should be carefully managed as part of the cloud adoption decision-making process, concluding that the cloud should be avoided entirely is often futile.
Most organisations will leverage cloud technology as part of their digital operations in future. Those who fail to prepare and adapt will invariably expose themselves to unnecessary security and compliance risks. Equally, those organisations which patently refuse to entertain the possibility and opportunity of cloud adoption are likely to severely impair their operations in comparison to their competitors in future.
Many organisations, or factions within organisations, have resisted cloud adoption at a management level influenced by a variety of factors, such as:
- Lack of understanding on what the cloud is and how it delivers the intended benefits
- Concerns relating to outsourcing and the lack of direct control over underlying data storage and security
- Personal risk, such as where the team is negatively impacted by the efficiencies created by cloud adoption
- Unclear guidance from regulators and policy-makers on how to safely utilise the cloud (for example, when tackling data protection and residency requirements)
- Fear of change or disruption to the status quo