Even though the cloud computing market is quite mature in Europe, USA, etc., there are still multiple regions in the world where it has just started to grow. According to research, enterprise spending on cloud infrastructure has officially crossed the 45 billion mark.
And even though Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to have the fastest growth, other cloud providers achieved strong growth in revenues as well. The next 10 largest cloud providers achieved a 28% growth rate, while the medium to small cloud providers saw 25% growth rate.
With these stats, it is easy to understand that the usage of the cloud in emerging markets is increasing, but there are not enough providers to cover the current market. This is why an in-country local cloud business is quite an exciting opportunity.
However, like every business, cloud computing comes with its own set of problems that you need to overcome! Here, we discuss the 7 cloud challenges you can face while starting your business.
What are the most Common Cloud Challenges?
Here are the 7 most common cloud challenges:
1. Privacy and Data Sovereignty
Security risks concerning the data stored in the cloud are among the most prominent challenges faced when thinking of cloud business. With the already hot debate around data security worldwide, providing absolute data privacy is the top concern of any cloud service provider.
There are 137 countries in the world that have data protection and privacy laws. However, to enforce these laws, it is also important to make sure that the data is inside the country. This is why you need Data sovereignty.
Since dealing with cloud computing means receiving and sending large amounts of data at high speed, the communication channel can also be susceptible to data leaks.
Data security and integrity issues include data breaches, identity theft, malware infections, hacking and other threats. These breaches can eventually lead to potential loss of trust from your clients in your services.
You can overcome this challenge by implementing encrypted file systems, security applications and data loss software to prevent any external attacks on the cloud infrastructure. You can also implement a multi-factor authentication system to ensure only authorized personnel can log into the system. Real-time monitoring of end-users can also help you spot any suspicious activity!
Recommended: How to adapt your cloud strategy for data localization?
2. Lack of Expertise
With the rapid advancement in cloud computing, anyone thinking of starting a cloud business might find it difficult to keep up with different aspects of cloud computing. One of the major cloud challenges has been the unavailability of resources and expertise in the industry.
According to the report by RightScale in 2019, 75% of people mark it as a challenge, whereas 25% mark it as a serious challenge in the industry.
Adding a new IT staff to the team for every new change is impossible and quite costly, especially for small businesses stepping into the industry.
3. Performance Challenges: Latency or Downtime
Performance is an important factor in cloud business or cloud-based solutions. If the performance of the cloud is not good enough for your customers, it can drive away from the users and decrease profits.
A simple example can be, latency while loading a website or an app can result in a huge dropout rate of the users. This latency can be because of inefficient load balancing. Inefficient load balancing is when the server cannot efficiently split the traffic, providing a bad user experience.
Also Read – The Rise of Cloud Repatriation: Balancing Cost and Performance in the Cloud Landscape
Another performance challenge can be the downtime of the software. Any organization or individual will not be keen on compromising the quality of the availed service. Even though it is hard to mitigate all kinds of server outages, constant monitoring can prove to be useful in reducing the downtime rate.
You can tackle the problem with proper cloud monitoring tools that can be used to constantly monitor your cloud’s performance. However, even though there are multiple cloud monitoring tools in the market, many of them can be on the more expensive side.
Hybrid clouds have data in both private and public clouds, and security and governance restrictions can end up creating network limitations. You can use effective data management practices to tackle this problem and ensure the best performance.
4. Multi-Cloud Environments
Not a few, but most companies right now are working on more than one cloud. In fact, according to a report, about 84% of the companies are using a multi-cloud strategy. On average, companies use about 4-5 private and public clouds, which can prove difficult to manage for the infrastructure team.
When it comes to managing multi-cloud environments, you need proper tools which can help you manage all the aspects of a multi-cloud environment & a well-trained, proper team.
5. Cost Management
When it comes to starting a business, cost is the first thing on anyone’s mind. Setting up an in-country cloud business can be complex, and there are certain elements that you need to know about when starting your own business. Things to keep in mind are capital expenditure, data center costs, support staff costs, and marketing costs.
Companies tend to spend their budget way more than necessary on multiple activities that they think might be the right fit with multiple reasons involved. It can be because of lack of knowledge, unskilled resources, hurried operations, or simple carelessness.
To make sure you have a handle on your cost management, you can look at multiple technological solutions for managing your cloud business.
Recommended: Learn more about cost management when setting up a cloud business and how fast you can break even!
6. Business and Scaling Aspects
When it comes down to investing in or starting a cloud business vertical, many people might face business development as an important challenge to tackle. It might be because of not having the proper experience, or maybe because you are not completely aware of the scaling possibilities.
There are many ways you can go about scaling your business. You can reach out to them directly or connect with them digitally; lead generation and developing a sales channel can be a way to go about it.
Try to also position yourself smartly in the market by highlighting your USP. Focus on segmenting your customers and targeting them accordingly. You can also educate yourself and your team more about marketing, sales, and the business development process.
7. Cloud Integration
Releasing a new application in the cloud is a much simpler procedure, but transferring your existing application to cloud computing is much more challenging. This is exactly what cloud integration and migration is all about. It refers to the process of moving all the data and applications from on-premise storage to cloud storage.
Even though moving all your business process from one location to another can be challenging, it is also rewarding with all its benefits. But cloud migration also comes with other problems like security configurations, extensive troubleshooting, downtime, etc.
What can you do About it?
When it comes to these 7 challenges, we have already added a few solutions above. However, other than these solutions, you can choose the easier alternative – Hire a third-party expert that you can turn to whenever you face any problem!
This way you don’t have to do any of the heavy lifting. You can plan check-ins to make sure everything is under control and let the experts handle the nitty gritty details!
Conclusion
Cloud is an extremely fast-growing vertical with a sea of possibilities and business opportunities. But like every rose has its thorn, setting up your cloud business will also have its own set of challenges. We hope with this article, and you now know some of the problems you can expect when setting up your business.
To make sure you don’t face any of these problems, you can always book a demo session with us and let us tell you how we help you with not only these but any other problems!
With 13+ years of experience in business development, general management, and operations, Rishab brings his learnings from industries such as internet services, FMCG and industrial goods to Apiculus. A graduate of the Indian School of Business, he handles overall business operations at Apiculus focusing on partnerships, alliances, marketing and sales.