What kinds of risks are associated with the cloud?
When you make the transition to cloud services, it opens up major opportunities for the business. It can bring access to innovation, scalability and major competitive advantages. But, as with all changes to the business, there are of course some risks to consider before you make the transition. In this article, you can read about three common risks in the transition to cloud services, and how you can best prepare yourselves to address them.
Uncertainty and ignorance of licensing models
Many companies initially experience challenges in understanding how capacity-based services can best be used, and what kind of behaviour stimulates the licensing model. Most of the businesses that have the greatest need for cloud solutions experience difficulties in calculating the costs of cloud services in advance. The challenges are in many cases associated with businesses committing to traditional annual commitments, when they should really be buying per minute or hour, and vice versa, some services just keep rolling along month after month, when they should have been closed down ages ago. It is therefore important to define in advance which applications and solutions are to be stored in the cloud, and then to estimate an initial capacity.
Work on security is overlooked
The cloud has lots of security solutions and security applications that offer good protection for both data and users in the business. If some operations are run via private cloud services, both operations and security are particularly high, as monitoring and security procedures take place in in-house data centres. But the cloud is not free of threats. As we all know, increased digitalisation opens up more attack surfaces, so it is important to carry out work on security in parallel.
“Making the move from in-house operations to buying cloud services is a major step for many companies, so it can be reassuring to have a trusted partner to collaborate with throughout the journey”
Prioritise information classification in work on security
Before making the move to the cloud, it’s important to review the information classification of your internal data. Information classification determines which data is to be stored where, depending on the level of security. This is an important task for all businesses, but especially so if your business is subject to regulation. Data then needs to be encrypted before it can be moved to the cloud. Once in the cloud, infrastructure can be built up to maintain secure operations, and there are a number of different security solutions available. In addition to this, other measures such as antivirus, backup, patching, multi factor authentication, end-point protection and automatic updates are important security measures to add.
The human factor is the biggest risk
When it comes to security issues, the human factor is often the biggest risk, which may be due to the fact that there are no internal security procedures. In addition to implementing the technical solutions that monitor systems and prevent cyber security attacks, it is important to create clear procedures and a security policy in connection with the move to the cloud. The security policy must contain, among other things, guidelines on which data can be stored in the cloud and under what conditions it can be moved. In this context, it’s important to continuously offer employees training in the areas of security and awareness.
Make a plan for the move and for integration with existing systems
To prepare the business ahead of the transition to cloud services, it’s important to have a well-considered cloud strategy. A cloud strategy is about reviewing how a transition to the cloud affects your existing systems, integrations, functions and solutions, as well as employees and customers. You therefore need a clear plan if you’re going to be able to make full use of all the benefits and opportunities of the cloud and avoid any problems.
Minimise risks with the cloud by getting help from an experienced IT partner
When a move to the cloud first starts, many businesses have problems with the technical transition, which can be complex to translate from a traditional perspective. Making the move from in-house operations to buying cloud services is a major step for many companies, so it can be reassuring to have a trusted partner to collaborate with throughout the journey.
At Nordlo, we have extensive experience of cloud solutions and have helped many customers to move all or parts of their IT environment into the cloud. Would you like to find out about the rate at which cloud services are growing among businesses in the Nordic region, and how a move to the cloud can take your business to the next level?