What Factors Will Prohibit Organisations From Moving To The Cloud?

So the cloud hype train rolls on and we’re all constantly being told how the cloud can help cut costs, increase agility and reduce time to market. The cloud certainly has its advantages and for SMBs and start ups with little or no ‘IT baggage’ the cloud is an attractive proposition.  

However, for most enterprises a transition to cloud computing is not something that should be undertaken lightly.  Tom Brand, virtualisation practise lead at GlassHouse Technologies UK talks about the main barriers to cloud adoption for enterprises.

Today, a large number of cloud solutions exist in the market place, providing great choice; but this leads to a complex decision making process.  Broadly, three core deployment models exist – Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service SaaS. 

These models are typically provided from an internal (private) cloud, external (public) cloud or both. For more on cloud definitions and deployment models, I recommend reading this article by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). 

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Whichever cloud deployment model route an organisation decides to take, it needs to decide whether it wants to use a private or a public cloud, or even a combination of both.  For this decision, there are lots of factors to take into account.  

Focussing predominantly on IaaS, below I highlight some of the factors that are likely to prohibit enterprises from taking advantage of the two main cloud types and a potential solution to those challenges.