Challenges it managers face when moving to cloud computing

CHALLENGES IT MANAGERS FACE WHEN MOVING TO CLOUD COMPUTING Challenges IT Managers face when moving to cloud computing Cloud computing refers to a model that enables convenient, on-demand access to a network of shared, configurable computing resources that can be released and provisioned with less service provider interaction or management effort. Unquestionably, moving to the cloud is today’s new thing for business owners and IT managers because of its infrastructure. It is true that, moving data to a hosted server from an in-house server has various potential advantages and benefits for business owners and IT managers. However, there are very many risks associated with the process of moving to the cloud, and IT managers are faced with many challenges in this regard. As a result, many IT managers are cautious in adopting and moving to the cloud because of the challenges thereon including potential vendor lock-in and security concerns. These challenges are mostly non-technical since they are concerned with how existing management, policies, processes and employees are affected by a move to the cloud (Beheshti, 2011).
For IT managers, a move to the cloud is potentially a disruptive process to the current workplace. For instance, an IT manager for an organization who in the past decade has been patching OSs, locking down data center hardware, securing applications and developing disaster recovery plans would be in rush of moving on to the cloud (Holtsnider & Jaffe, 2012). They will be faced with the question of SLAs-Service Level Agreements; this is because, if proper care is not taken, some SLAs may lock them into remaining with a cloud provider that does not meet expectations. IT managers need to understand what level of services they can rely on when moving to the cloud. Secondly, there is the question of application security; protection of clients and organizations data is on top of any IT manager’s priority list. IT managers, therefore, have the responsibility of checking the security standard of any cloud service they intend to employ. Cloud computing offers very many choices with regards to applications or software the company needs to use, as a result, a choice dilemma arises. IT managers, when moving to the cloud are faced with the issue of loss of control and reliability issues. Other challenges include the need of creating cost-reflective charging and metering of service consumption; managing service brownouts and blackouts; architecting frictionless, pure virtualized services and applications that are easily scalable (Molen, 2010).
Despite these challenges, there are several benefits that IT managers derive from moving to the cloud. IT managers are able to off businesses access to services, applications, and hardware resources such as network storage without incurring the high initial costs associated with acquiring and maintaining of the hardware or software (Holtsnider & Jaffe, 2012). Moving to the cloud makes data accessible to all users despite their location. Additionally, business data are much more protected since their data and information are stored offsite and normally replicated across various data centers. This is much safer than when data is stored on the in-house server, which is on a single location. Moving to the cloud comes with benefits such as reduced latency, efficient backup capabilities, support for peak demands and increased fault tolerance (Molen, 2010).
References
Beheshti, S. A. (2011). Business Process on Demand; Studying the Enterprise Cloud Computing and its Role in Green IT. New York: GRIN Verlag.
Holtsnider, B., & Jaffe, B. D. (2012). IT Manager’s Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done. Waltham, MA: Elsevier.
Molen, F. V. D. (2010). Get Ready for Cloud Computing: A Comprehensive Guide to Virtualization and Cloud Computing. (C. Brace & M. Schrama, Eds.). Zaltbommel: Van Haren Publishing.