Here at ThrottleNet, we feel there are many advantages of the cloud. The cloud gives businesses the flexibility to access their files anytime, anywhere. It is easy to use, simple to set up, scalable and affordable.

Overall, the cloud is great for companies… and it takes up a whole lot less office space than a room full of servers.

While the concept of the cloud has been around since the 1950’s, it didn’t become a reality for private customers until 2008. Since cloud technology is still relatively new, it is no surprise that a recent Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) cloud survey shows that there is a great deal of confusion amongst executives about the cloud – how it works, what it does and what the advantages of the cloud really are.

Perceived Disadvantages of the Cloud

The EMA cloud survey outlines what they call six “Deadly Challenges to the Cloud”, stating a number of key cloud computing challenges moving forward. Of the 415 respondents to the cloud survey, 88% of them had experienced at least one instance or issue with either performance, support, downtime, management, scalability or pricing, the six cloud computing challenges outlined in the study.

According to the cloud survey, most companies are still experimenting with the cloud, trying out multiple vendors to find out where they fit in. The EMA is also seeing department-level fragmentation of the cloud. Some departments within a company may be leveraging the cloud while others are not.

Advantages of the Cloud

The Survey shows companies are increasingly persistent in their adaptation of the cloud because the benefits significantly outweigh the risks. Businesses are looking to keep pace with technology over time in an effort to remain competitive in their industries. 48% of respondents to the EMA survey said they pursued the cloud to deploy new workloads faster, while 47% pursued the cloud for faster scaling of existing workloads.

Savings was also seen as one of the advantages of the cloud, as most IT organizations remain under some sort of budgetary constraints, with 47% of cloud survey respondents pursuing the cloud to save on Capital expenses, with 45% seeking operational expense savings. Business owners saw great advantages of the cloud in terms of disaster recovery capabilities, cost, rapid scalability and deployment speed, all benefits of cloud hosting.

How to Improve Cloud Experience

Despite cloud computing challenges, ThrottleNet aims to keep the cloud simple for our customers and be upfront about pricing, requirements, and what the cloud can and can’t do.

The fact is, the cloud lives somewhere. There is no actual data swimming around the sky. In reality, all data on the cloud is stored in someone’s server, somewhere. Companies may not be keen to the idea of having their data stored off-premises, no matter how secure those premises are. We get that. At ThrottleNet, we aim to eliminate the confusion cloud computing causes business owners, keeping these three best practices in mind:

Transparency

The EMA cloud survey admits many companies are “flying blind” when choosing a cloud provider, along with understanding service offerings and pricing models. ThrottleNet, as a full-service managed network provider keeps our cloud customers in the loop and explains our affordable, scalable managed cloud solutions up front and maintains an honest approach in these discussions with clients from day one so they know what they are getting from the cloud.  ThrottleNet’s managed cloud services are based on a set monthly cost, so there is no confusion when partnering with us for the cloud. That’s just one of the advantages of the cloud with ThrottleNet.

Simplicity

The cloud is a new technology, and even seasoned in-house IT professionals may not have hands-on experience working in a cloud environment prior to a company transitioning. That’s OK. We aim to make the cloud simple.

Support

 

Support universally is one of the biggest cloud computing challenges companies have when partnering with a cloud vendor. Our highly trained support staff ensures a smooth transition to the cloud for your business, and is available to answer any questions or concerns you may have about our cloud products. Unlike other cloud providers, ThrottleNet’s cloud services are integrated into our bundled managed network offerings, giving your company access to help desk support, 24×7 monitoring, vendor management, security and after-hours emergency support.

Security isn’t an issue with ThrottleNet’s cloud-based server either. Our data center is staffed 24×7 and fully secured – earning SSAE16 SOC 1 Type II compliance.  Each client has their own fully-isolated tenant network with integrated perimeter firewall and site-to-site VPN.

ThrottleNet realizes the cloud computing challenges and misconceptions out there. That’s why we do cloud computing differently. Learn more about the advantages of the cloud today by contacting us. Find out if the cloud is right for your business.