Peer to Peer Magazine

36 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2018 Lost In The Fog FEATURES Amazon, Google, Microso, and a multitude of soware providers offer various Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS,) or Soware as a Service (SaaS) solutions aempting to address every technology challenge imaginable. Distinct cloud solutions may have functionality that overlap or require additional third-party soware to meet firm requirements. Oen, cost structures for the similar solutions are not easily comparable. Adding further complexity, the cost and energy to move to a cloud solution is oen underestimated. Firms are currently challenged to find administrators with the appropriate skill sets that apply to cloud solutions they acquire. Additionally, the constant stream of upgrades and new services requires administrators to update their expertise at an ever- increasing pace. Oen, a firm's internal skills need to be supplemented. These challenges require a significant training or consulting budget. The daunting variety of options, costs, and administrative time seemed insurmountable to evaluate which solution is the best fit for your firm. Let's face it, the cloud really is a big undefined thing floating out of reach. It easy to get lost in this fog of cloud solutions. Through the Haze Understanding the challenges, there are still very strong reasons to invest in cloud solutions. The rationale that drives a move to a cloud solution includes remote access, reliability, redundancy, security, and cost, among others. Users expect and are expected to be able to access firm data outside the office. As the workforce becomes more technically savvy and remote, there is an increased desire to access information on mobile devices. For under 20 bucks online, you can buy a two- terabyte flash drive with built-in flashlight. But it is not the best solution for client data, as flash drives can be easily lost or stolen. Cloud solutions are designed to be secure, accessed anywhere, and be mobile friendly, making them the obvious preference when accessing from mobile devices (which likely have a flashlight app anyway). And even though we know no one reads them, cloud service providers DO offer a service level agreement that defines ownership of your data, the accessibility, and usability. So long as you have a stable internet connection, you can expect to access a cloud solution. The top service providers tout "5 nines", which is 99.999% uptime. The greatest reasons to consider public cloud services are stability and redundancy on a scale that most small or mid-size firms cannot replicate. Additionally, many services offer a geo-redundancy level, which means your data is resilient against regional upheavals. The redundancy and scalability offered by public cloud solutions provide flexibility to test and upgrade reliably. As changes in technology occur, your electronic data should be migrated seamlessly without interruption. Of course, there is no guarantee that a technology advancement or business change won't cause some disruption. Technology can be deprecated, and businesses can cease operations, which can affect cloud services. But on-premise solutions suffer the same misery -- just ask anyone who still has InfoPath forms. Data breaches are a baneful occurrence for any firm, making security a priority for clients. Cloud solutions may be considered plump target, but their security measures exceed most firms' capabilities.

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