Cloud!  Cloud!! Cloud!!!  Every where you look there’s an article, a commercial, an Ad or a talking head pushing you to the cloud.

So, what is it?  First, it’s not magic, it’s not some technical marvel beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.  

Most of all, it’s not a panacea despite what the hucksters and talking heads say…..

It’s nothing more than today’s version of shared datacenters.  There are still servers sitting in a big room with lots of cables and blinking lights. What has changed is the external infrastructure that makes moving your IT resources out of your own datacenter to someone else’s feasible.

At its simplest you are paying someone, Amazon, Oracle, etc. to house a Windows or Linux server (or servers) in their datacenter dedicated to running your applications.  They provide the computing resources (CPU, Disk, RAM) and typically the licenses for the Operating System and your Databases as part of your monthly fee.  You then connect to it from your internal network over the internet.  Simple eh? 

Depending on who you choose as your provider they may also offer a range of value-add services.  Automatic backup of all your data. Redundancy of your system.  Encryption of the environment or just your data.  Automatic load balancing so your environment expands, or contracts based on demand (your fee will too).

All these features are intriguing, but costly.

So, is it right for your business?  Maybe….

Some applications have been redesigned by vendors (like Microsoft) to make them better when delivered via the cloud then if you hosted them yourself. 

Email for example.  I steer all my clients to externally hosted (Cloud) email solutions.  Why?  Security.  Email is the single largest target for the delivery of viruses, trojans and ransomware.  Microsoft spends more in one day to protect the security of email that they host, then your business could afford to spend in a lifetime. 

A cloud-based email solution provides your business with optimal flexibility, better security and makes all your other internal systems much less vulnerable to attack.   Why?  Hackers scan businesses internet connections for openings in the firewall (referred to as ports) to allow external traffic (like inbound email) in.  These ports are very well known and the “bad guys” know how to shape traffic to attack them.

Other solutions that have been designed for this same cloud approach may well suit your business.  Time and attendance systems that communicate with your time clocks via the internet.  Accounting systems that utilize a web browser for the user interface and host your data in the cloud.  These along with email are just a few examples.

The key to effectively using cloud-based solutions is the mission criticality and time sensitivity of your applications.  Many systems developed in the last 30 years use a concept called client-server.  Simply put, the server hosts the data and does some consolidation and reporting, but most of the actual work is typically done on the client PC (the one sitting in front of you or your employee) and written back to the server.  These systems are very sensitive to a thing called latency. 

Latency is the time from when you initiate an action (hit the enter key for example) and when you receive the response back from the server appropriate for the action.  The two pieces of the system were written to expect a response measured in milliseconds (ms). 

Developers assumed these systems would be used in an on-premise solution where 3 to 5ms response time is the norm.  Add that to what can be anywhere from 20 to 100+ms from travelling over the internet and suddenly, the user’s pc will hang or even crash.  At best, the user experience becomes excruciating. 

So, the best candidates for migrating to the cloud are systems that were written to run using a web front end and all the “work” is done on the server.  If your systems aren’t written that way, they aren’t good candidates for migrating to the cloud.

The cloud provides numerous advantages if you can make use of them.  Your data will typically be more secure than if retained on premise.  You will no longer have to deal with hardware maintenance cycles.  Your systems will be easily available remotely without you needing to manage the security aspects.  You will dramatically reduce your upfront investment in new solutions and upgrades.

But,

The cloud will almost never be cheaper in hard dollars then just hosting it all yourself in your own facility.  You trade a one-time hardware investment for a forever monthly fee structure.  You will need the highest bandwidth internet you can get.  You’ll still need to either retain a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to maintain your cloud systems or keep your internal IT staff.  You’re just changing where your systems are, not eliminating the system maintenance associated with them.

So, do not look at it as a cost saving measure.  You will spend far more over the typical 3 to 5-year life of IT systems for a cloud service then you would for buying the equivalent systems and installing them in your own site.