Trends affecting your cloud strategy

“With great power comes great responsibility.”

Obviously, Spiderman’s Uncle Ben was not referring to the cloud, but the wisdom certainly applies.

The cloud has changed (and is continuing to change) how people expect to access data, which means IT professionals have the responsibility to implement cloud computing technology and security in order to keep the business productive and data secure. Of course, this isn’t something that can be done overnight. Cloud computing and security is a huge investment of time, money and talent. IT professionals need to create a strategy.

2015 Trends affecting your cloud strategy

Whether you have a cloud computing strategy in place or not, make sure to factor in these three trends:

Cloud complexity and project management

Over the past few years, the cloud has become incredibly complex. Yes, it offers benefits such as flexibility and lower overall costs, but it doesn’t come without a price. Business stakeholders need to understand that there will be a shift from capital-intensive to operational cost models, new security risks and challenges. Then, of course, you need to select from a seemingly endless number of service providers, implement the technology and train employees. A project this complex requires a project manager to prevent the waste of resources during the switch.

Hybrid cloud

With the combined use of public and private cloud platforms, companies can harness the power and flexibility of cloud computing without having to push all their data through the public internet. Industries that are using hybrid clouds include those that need access to highly sensitive data. Financial firms, law firms and healthcare companies have confidential data that needs to be protected in compliance with the law; those companies have benefited greatly from the ability to relay data between employees, clients and locations on a private cloud platform.

Cloud-centric design

Not all cloud service providers are made equal. When shopping for a cloud service provider, IT professionals need to go beyond thinking about the technology qualifications and price; they need to consider design. It may sound superficial, but employees and clients don’t understand or care about the technical details; they care about the user experience – and so should IT professionals. If employees and clients don’t like the user interface, they are going to find ways around using it and those alternatives are usually not secure.

While it may be easier to binge buy technology when the new IT budget becomes available this year, IT professionals need to implement a plan and think ahead. Technology moves to fast to spend without strategy.