What are the biggest disadvantages of cloud computing?
Cloud computing can be less secure than on-premises computing, since data is stored off-site.27%
Cloud computing can be less reliable than on-premises computing, since it can be subject to outages.37%
Cloud computing can be more complex than on-premises computing, since businesses need to manage multiple vendors.20%
All of the above.15%
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CTO for Digital & IT in Healthcare and Biotech2 years ago
I challenge the notion that it is less reliable than on-prem computing. The overall uptime of *properly designed* cloud infrastructure is much better in my experience than what you can do on-premises, and they are generally pretty good at fixing major outages. The biggest disadvantage of cloud computing, if you can call it that, is that it represents a real paradigm shift, with a corresponding required mindset shift, and that if you approach it naïvely you can end up with a solution that is insecure, expensive and complicated.Enterprise Security & Risk Management Architect in Insurance (except health)a year ago
I don't agree that the Cloud is less secure than most on-premises sites. I don't think most datacenters have the rigor or the scrutiny that the major cloud providers have whether it is technical access control or physical security. Most cloud models have horizontal security frameworks that allow you to use centralized policy for access control. Centralized policy for all services, and resources for on-premises is nearly unheard of.Cloud providers also have the architecture to support availability and reliability if you so choose to use it. Most companies can't afford the resources or the time to design, construct, and maintain the global centers that the cloud service providers have. And for most companies their mission isn't maintaining the environment but selling their product or service.
You will always have multiple vendors no matter whether it is hardware or software. With most cloud providers their responsibility model hides you from much of that.
Maintenance is another part of what you are paying for. On-premises requires patching, upgrades, security fixes, vulnerability monitoring, configuration maintenance, hardware compatibility, and a host of other tasks that are expensive and more importantly distracting from business delivery.
You also add complexity by having a hybrid model but that is a different discussion.
IT Manager in Consumer Goods10 months ago
I don think these are big disadvantages. on prem can also be less secure than cloud - its all about how you configure it. IT Manager in Finance (non-banking)9 months ago
The biggest disadvantage is you need to re-educate people. Without this, you'll have all three disadvantages. Educate your staff and you'll have neither of them. Enterprise Architect in Finance (non-banking)4 months ago
The challenges with public cloud aren't those listed above. Security, reliability and complexity is all depending on the configuration and architecture of the solutions, and can be equally disastrous - if not more - if done incorrectly on-premise.Challenges are training and governing the wide set of services that cloud provides. In the past, a strongly governed organization could limit the number of technology standards because introducing a new one takes a significant initial investment. With the cloud, such technologies can be introduced much more quickly, and properly governing the positioning, control and management of these technologies is actually more challenging to accomplish given how "easy" it is to enable them (or perceived by others).
Another challenge is keeping the cost of public cloud under control. Small projects can have significant OPEX costs associated with it, especially if cost control isn't taken into account from the beginning. For on-premise your cost is mostly sort-of capped by the license constraints, infrastructure capacity needs, etc. (not always, and gone are the days of perpetual licenses).
Using public cloud provides a great increase in flexibility, at the cost that comes from that great flexibility. If you don't organize yourself for it, you're going to get massive challenges on all possible areas. But if you do organize, change the developer and operations people's cultural mindset, etc. then it can be a great enabler.