As years pass by, cloud computing has witnessed wider adoption by businesses worldwide. Many businesses have benefitted from the scalability, speed and flexibility of the cloud to carry out their operations. According to Gartner, global spending on public cloud infrastructures will grow 21.7% in 2023.
Gartner further observes that by 2026, at least 75% of businesses will adopt a digital transformation model powered by various cloud platforms. Such figures are hardly surprising considering the growth that cloud computing has recorded in recent years. That said, it’s also essential to point out the challenges that businesses are facing while developing robust cloud apps.
It’s vital to understand these challenges and possible solutions to ensure a smooth transition for businesses.
- Issues With Data Privacy And Security
Concerns over data security are nothing new when it comes to working with cloud environments. It has been a persistent issue in cloud app development as users need to take accountability for their data, and not all cloud service providers can assure complete data privacy. Often owing to a lack of visibility and control tools, data misuse, the absence of identity access management and cloud misconfiguration cloud data leaks happen. Additionally, there are concerns about malicious insiders, insecure APIs, and oversight in Cloud data management.
Solution: Configure network hardware and install the latest software updates to prevent security concerns. Integrating antivirus, firewalls, and maximising bandwidth for cloud data availability are several ideas for businesses to prevent data security risks.
- Flexibility And Interoperability
The next on the list of cloud app development challenges is more of an operational roadblock. When businesses expand their IT ecosystems, one of the most pressing issues with cloud computing from a logistical perspective is moving from one service provider to another.
When a business moves to a new platform, there’s a lockdown period that disrupts the network which lowers the productivity in the process. This lack of flexibility leads to a bunch of issues:
- Maintaining secure and compliant networks from scratch
- Safe and swift data migration and management
- Restricted access to customers or users
These issues have become more evident recent times owing to the complexity of platforms and systems.
Solution: To counter these tricky issues, it’s best to learn about the relevant data and service laws in your specific region to understand your portability rights. This will help your business while setting concrete terms with potential service providers to prevent lockdown periods and service restrictions in advance.
- Lack Of Proper Resources And Expertise
The insufficiency of expertise and resources is another pestering issue in cloud app development. Even though many IT employees are now upskilled to improve their expertise in cloud computing, there’s still a shortage in the market for employees with relevant skills.
Solution: Many organisations are also expecting to overcome such challenges by employing more workers with certifications or skills in cloud computing. It’s also, recommended to provide adequate training to current employees to make them more productive.
- Inadequate Access Controls And Management
Lack of sufficient cloud access controls and management can lead to various risks for an organisation. It’s possible for cybercriminals to access web apps, perform data breaches, steal credentials, and whatnot. Companies may also face access management issues if they have a large or distributed workforce.
Additionally, organisations may also have to deal with password fatigue or issues such as inactive users signed for a long period. With poor access controls and management, companies are vulnerable to malicious attacks, exposing their business information and user data.
Solution: Companies should implement proper data control and management practices to avoid such mishaps. All the user accounts must be securely connected with a central governing authority to administer who is accessing what systems.
- Managing Multi-Cloud Environment
The challenges are not limited to a single cloud environment. With the immense growth of multi-cloud platforms, businesses are combining private and public clouds frequently.
With companies utilising an average of at least five cloud-based infrastructures, it’s obvious that the use of the cloud will grow further. Managing security across multiple clouds can be complex, particularly if the clouds have different security control configurations.
Solution: Opting for a multi-cloud data management solution is the right approach to take for enterprises. Not every tool will offer specific security functionalities and multi-cloud environments become highly complex and sophisticated. In this case, open-source products provide a great deal of control over multi-cloud architectures.
- Reduced Visibility And Control
Cloud App development comes with the advantage of not having to manage the infrastructure and resources like servers to keep the systems running. Although it saves considerable time, expenses, and effort, users tend to have less control and visibility into their software, systems and computing assets.
As a result, companies find it difficult to crosscheck how efficient the security systems are owing to no access to the data and security tools on the cloud platform. Additionally, businesses can’t have complete insights into their services, data and users to detect abnormal patterns that result in a breach.
Solution: Before adopting cloud services, companies need to gather crucial details. These details include what data they can access, and what security and controls the service providers use to eliminate risks and data breaches. This will provide insight into how much visibility and control you should expect from the service providers.
- Performance Issues
When businesses rely on cloud apps it means they’re dependent on the service providers. The next prominent challenge of adopting the cloud is related to the partnership. Partnering with service providers often presents businesses with innovative technologies they wouldn’t otherwise be able to access.
On the other hand, the performance of a company’s business intelligence (BI) and other cloud solutions is also tied to the performance of the provider when it falters. This means when your provider is down, your business processes will be down as well.
Solution: It’s rather common for many big players in the cloud computing space to experience outages. Businesses must ensure, they have the right processes in place, and they will notify in case of an issue. For the data-driven decision-making process, real-time data is important for companies. Being able to access data that’s stored on the cloud in real time is one of the imperative solutions companies need to consider.
- Cloud Migration
Cloud Migration means moving your data, applications, systems, services, and other information on-premises (desktops and servers) to the cloud. This process allows computing abilities to take place on the cloud infrastructure rather than devices.
When a business embraces the cloud, it can encounter many setbacks while transferring all its legacy or traditional systems to the cloud. The overall process tends to be time-consuming, and the business may have no experience in dealing with expert cloud providers already in business for years.
When businesses want to migrate from one cloud provider to another, they must go through the entire process all over again. Now, businesses may not be sure how the next cloud service provider will serve them. Businesses could face issues such as troubleshooting, speed, application downtime, and security. This results in poor user experience and affects businesses in many ways.
Solution: Before you choose a cloud service provider, make sure to analyse your cloud requirements, security postures and other aspects. For this, you can compare different cloud service providers and understand which one can offer the best service to you.
- Incompatible Cloud Solutions
Such issues may creep in between the cloud services and on-premises infrastructure while transferring your workload to the cloud. This is a huge setback that may require businesses to invest in making it compatible by any means.
Solution: Before selecting a cloud service provider, create a list of all your services, technologies, and systems you would like to move to the cloud. Enquire your cloud service provider how compatible your services are with yours, if the compatibility matches you can choose them.
If you find out a service provider is incompatible, move on to the next service provider on your list. Go through the same process and find a suitable option.
Parting Thoughts,
Just as the benefits, it’s evident from this entire discussion that cloud computing comes with a set of challenges too. However, there are proper solutions for each of these challenges that must be aware of. If cloud computing has been uncharted territory for your business, it’s wise to consider these challenges and solutions.
Reflecting on these issues will help you make the right decisions when it comes to choosing a cloud service provider. It will also ensure your business’ transition to the cloud is smooth and hassle-free.