Non Cost Considerations

We now have collected enough measurements about our existing environment to communicate intelligently with a cloud provider. Now its time to consider any other things that might indicate that we shouldn't move to the cloud. I'm going to throw out all that I can think of. I welcome your suggestions too.

We can't move to the cloud because

• I need to see my computers everyday. This makes me feel safe.
• We process very secure information for the government. I don't think the cloud is safe enough.
• My brother in law is currently watching over my computers. He wouldn't have anything to do.
• We use the heat from our computers to keep our baked goods warm.

Some of my favorites from 65 Reasons Not To Move To The Cloud:

• Your career would be negatively impacted without a large IT budget and staff.
• You would be bored – No more coordinating the configuration, test, development, and integration of hardware and software? What would you do all day?
• You’re really fond of your consultants and systems integrators and would miss them terribly.
• Your internal security is 100% guaranteed – much more secure than having your data in the Cloud. You’d bet your life on it.
• Your internal infrastructure is much more reliable than that of the leading Cloud Service Providers.

David Linthicum has listed some good ones in To Move or Not to Move

Top 10 reasons ... to be careful about:

1. Security is largely immature, and currently requires specialized expertise.
2. Much of the technology is proprietary, and thus can cause lock-in.
3. Your dependent on the cloud computing provider for your IT resources, thus you could be exposed around outages and other service interruptions.
4. Using the Internet can cause network latency with some cloud applications.
5. In some cases cloud providers are more expensive than on-premise systems.
6. Not in control of costs if subscription prices go up in the future.
7. Integration between on-premise and cloud-based systems can be problematic.
8. Compliance issues could raise the risks of using cloud computing.
9. Data privacy issues could arise, if your cloud provider seeks to monetize the data in their system.
10. M&A activity around cloud providers, could mean constantly adjusting and readjusting your cloud computing solutions

If our benefits outweigh the riskd, then let's proceed to pricing our cloud needs.

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Next Post: Getting Some Prices

 

Additional resources:

65 Reasons Not To Move           Myths about Cloud Computing          To Move or Not to Move