Cloud infrastructure management – an organization’s ability to have complete control over their cloud environment – is gaining rapid popularity and has been one of the most disruptive forces in the IT world in the last few years. Organizations leverage cloud computing services primarily to save money and effort that would otherwise be spent on managing an on-premise computing solution.
While the cloud offers a lot of advantages, establishing an efficient enterprise cloud management strategy requires not only time and resources but also brings in a host of challenges in cloud computing that comes with the process.
To be able to enjoy the benefits of cloud management, businesses need to be aware of all these potential roadblocks and take effective measures to overcome cloud management challenges.
In this blog post, we are going to discuss the common enterprise cloud management challenges that you can encounter and tips to overcome cloud management challenges
1. Security and Privacy
Keeping confidential data safe and secure is among the topmost priorities for businesses. Cloud security essentially refers to a set of robust technologies to safeguard data.
Earlier, most of the enterprises used corporate firewalls to keep their sensitive data safe and secure. Now with cloud migration becoming an increasingly prevalent practice, the challenge of keeping the data safe makes businesses extremely cautious.
How to overcome the challenge?
There are multiple ways to mitigate this challenge such as –
- Implementing security applications, encrypted file systems, and data loss software to prevent attacks on cloud infrastructures
- Adopting a tight security protection protocol that includes training the internal IT staff on security issues and how to handle them
- Cloud service providers must take strong measures and reassure their clients of the security of their data by preventing hacking and other malicious activities that could compromise their systems
- Using security tools and adopting a corporate culture that upholds data security discreetly
Related Read: How Can Businesses Ensure Cloud Platform Security?
2. Interoperability
Another common challenge that businesses face while using cloud infrastructure is how to avoid the prospect of being locked into a service. Every business out there expects the freedom of portability that would allow them to migrate in and out of the cloud without any issues. When that is not possible due to lock-in periods and other similar problems, the desire to collaborate with a cloud service provider dampens.
How to overcome the challenge?
Cloud service providers need to have the ability to integrate a client’s cloud computing requirements with their on-premise IT operations in a seamless fashion. This is also important as many businesses cannot afford to continue their operations within the cloud and on their on-premise operations separately.
3. Cloud Costs
Costing is a significant challenge in the adoption, migration, and operation of cloud computing services, especially for small and medium-sized businesses.
Although, for the most part, cloud computing helps businesses save money as organizations can easily ramp up their processing capabilities without having to make large investments in new hardware. However, the scalable and on-demand nature of cloud computing services makes it difficult at times to define and predict quantities and costs clearly.
How to overcome the challenge?
There are several ways to control cloud costs. For example, organizations can optimize costs by automating policies for governance, conducting better financial analytics and reporting, or keeping the management reporting practice on course so that the cost issues in cloud computing can be decreased.
The other way to overcome this challenge is by preparing a cost estimate budget right from the beginning. Make sure to involve experts to assist you with cloud cost management or create a centralized team to manage and oversee the budget details.
4. Cloud Migration
Cloud migration refers to the process of moving all the applications and data from on-premise storage to the cloud. Moving business operations to another cloud service provider can be very challenging and can affect the functioning of all other systems. Among the other challenges involved with cloud migration are –
- Security configurations
- Capital investment
- Time-consuming process
- Slow data migrations
- Extensive troubleshooting
- Application downtime
How to overcome the challenge?
The ideal way to overcome the challenges which come with cloud migration is by undertaking detailed pre-migration testing. To assess the situation better, make sure to stick to your budget and project deadlines during the testing phase.
You can also hire services of professional cloud service providers with expertise in cloud migration.
5. Managing Multi-Cloud Environment
Instead of using a single cloud, companies today are using multiple public and private clouds. Managing a multi-cloud environment sometimes hinders their management. Using a multi-cloud set-up brings in many other complexities and challenges which IT teams have to deal with.
Also Read: A Comprehensive List of the Best AWS Migration Tools and Services
How to overcome the challenge?
One of the best ways to overcome this cloud challenge is by utilization of proper tools such as cloud cost management solutions, automation, auto-scaling features, and other such tools which help manage a multi-cloud environment efficiently.
Further, hiring a professionally qualified team of skilled workers can also help you train your existing staff.
Also Read: 6 Best Practices for Cloud Cost Optimization
To Wrap
The success of any cloud computing infrastructure project is heavily reliant on a continued effort by businesses to systematically address all the challenges ranging from technological concerns to regulatory ones.
To make the best out of the cloud infrastructure and overcome issues, it is critical to take a strategic iterative approach to implementation, collaborate with business and IT teams, explore hybrid cloud solutions, and choose the right cloud service partner. It will ensure that you leverage all the benefits of cloud business intelligence by outweighing the challenges.
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