Whether you own an online business, are migrating to the cloud, or operate a brand new startup, all enterprises face similar web hosting challenges when acquiring and maintaining technology. In a business climate that’s constantly being conducted in the virtual world, finding reliable and secure website hosting solutions can be a daunting task. The fact is, companies aren’t just turning to the cloud for storage anymore. According to one recently conducted survey, 86% of all enterprises will turn to outside companies for most of their computing requirements within the next three to four years. As of now, cloud computing can be broken down into three different categories:
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) – With the SaaS model, software is delivered, owned, and managed by a third-party provider from remote locations. They include CRMs, accounting software, and even analytics. Using an SaaS provider means no more evaluating, purchasing, and maintaining many of the apps and software that power all of your businesses functions.
Infrastructure-as-as-Service (IaaS) – When you choose to go with IaaS, your resources, storage, and networking capabilities are each provided to you by an outside party on-demand.
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) – Those who decide to go with PaaS contract middleware services from a third-party provider. This includes things such as platforms, integration, process management, and databases.
Contracting these services makes it much easier for employees to work outside of a traditional office environment and can save a business of any size lots of extra money while also improving efficiency. However, transitioning to the cloud at any degree also poses some big security risks and while it’s true that third-party, cloud-based services do present some challenges, how they’re rolled out and applied can make a huge difference. Incorporating cloud services is a major hurdle facing enterprises both big and small. Listed below are a few of the biggest hosting challenges companies face when doing so.
1. Migration – Migration isn’t so much an issue for startups or as far as eCommerce is concerned. However, it is a challenge for companies that are transitioning to cloud-based applications and services. According to data I found online, 95% of existing companies are transitioning to some form of cloud computing service. Many of them are finding that it’s costing more than anticipated in terms of both time and budget. The main hosting challenges encountered during migration relate to troubleshooting, security during transition, speed of data transfer, complex cutover, and downtime during transition. Thankfully, these can all be dealt with by performing a comprehensive assessment before undertaking digital migration and working with an experienced agent to help plan and implement your enterprises transition.
2. Security – Security problems occur when you aren’t able to see where your data is located or when you feel that you do not have complete control over what happens to your information. Letting go of control requires an element of trust. The cost of data breaches is approximately $5.40 per record. When the typical breach potentially affects thousands or millions of employee or customer records, you can see how that cost could quickly break a company. In the event of a data breach, it’s important to learn from the breach and prevent any possible recurrence by implementing the right hosting tools. Most reputable hosting providers offer additional security features such as SSL certificates, DNS leak protection to avoid DNS hijacking, and monitoring services as part of their standard services. However, you should also find out how they can help you manage other security-related issues like privacy and compliance.
3. Lack of Expertise – As more enterprises place heavier workloads on cloud computing platforms, they run into unforeseen problems. One of these is having the expertise and resources needed to keep up with all the rapid technological advancements. If you run a small to medium sized company, these problems are compounded by a lack of in-house professionals who can guide and oversee both resource and asset management. Fortunately, many of these issues can be resolved without overstretching budgets thanks to automation. The right tools provide monitoring and analysis that can quickly identify information bottlenecks and alter processing and usage patterns to alleviate the problem automatically. You can also automate tasks like backups, updates, and other solutions that contain costs and reduce implementation problems.
4. Compliance – Growing concerns for data integrity and privacy protection have led to a crop of industry standards and government regulations that are meant to address these issues and protect consumer rights. These are constantly evolving and somewhat confusing for many business owners, but lack of awareness and non-compliance can be costly. Some cloud hosting providers state that they provide full compliance with general regulatory standards, but this doesn’t cover everything. That means you should ask your hosting provider how they deal with compliance issues, where your data is stored, and your ability to access or recover that information under a wide range of circumstances. Then, you need to keep your staff, vendors, and customers up to date on each of these matters.
The fact is, all businesses can face different issues when it comes to web hosting and data storage. Those listed above are just some of the most common. One of the worst things a business owner can do is to implement a solution without a clear understanding of the business’s needs and possible challenges. If you plan on moving to the cloud anytime soon make sure you speak with an agent at your favorite provider and get a clear understanding of everything listed above before moving forward!
