DeepNet Tech Team Discussion: Cloud Computing Challenges for SMBs

During our recent team meeting at our San Francisco Bay Area office, we had an in-depth discussion on the multifaceted challenges our SMBs encounter when adopting cloud technologies. We wanted to come away from this meeting with a few key issues that we felt we could see across the board when it comes to our clients, partners, and other SMBs across most sectors &industries.

‍

• Planning Phase Challenges: SMBs often face obstacles in the planning stage of cloud migration. This crucial phase requires a deep understanding of cloud technologies, which many SMBs lack. Ineffective planning can lead to increased costs and inefficiencies. Add to this the need for organizations to have an effective & clear vision of their goals; how can you understand what you need to migrate until you’ve agreed on what you are endeavoring to achieve?

• Data Quality: Put simply, you can’t visualize, slice and dice, operationalize, or integrate the data unless some sort of system(s) & plan can organize and process it. Regardless of how flexible the tools are, there needs to be some sort of continuity with the quality. There’s no such thing as a 'free lunch' in this regard.

• Data Migration Intricacies: A significant challenge for SMBs is migrating existing data to the cloud. This process demands careful handling and expertise to avoid data loss and ensure a seamless transition, an area where many SMBs struggle due to limited technical skills.

• Application Refactoring Complexities: Application refactoring for cloud optimization is another area where technical expertise is critical. SMBs often need guidance in redesigning their applications to leverage cloud capabilities fully, underlining the importance of technical acumen.

• Ongoing Cloud Management: Managing cloud resources effectively post-migration is essential. This includes monitoring, automated scaling, and resource optimization. SMBs often find this challenging due to the nuanced technical knowledge required.

Conclusion:

There are some key summary points that the tech team agrees upon:

• Ensure you’ve clearly defined a business need and set of objective(s).
• Get some help with planning out a data quality & migration plan.
• Don’t underestimate the challenge & ensure continuity with those who are doing the planning, migration, and ongoing management, as this will reduce costs.

We’ll cover more detail on topics such as ongoing cloud management and application refactoring in future articles.

Also see:

DeepNet Cloud Services

Blog: Cloud Computing