Barrier to Entry: Cloud Supplier Lock-In a Concern
Some small to medium enterprises hesitate when considering a transition to the public cloud simply for the fear of being locked into using one provider. Even though a plethora of cloud service providers are competing for business, these same providers don’t always make it easy to migrate into other vendor’s cloud solutions. This is due to the proprietary technology deployed by some cloud vendors. Another significant barrier could include contractual obligations that lock you into one provider.
The biggest risk is actually moving your systems from cloud to cloud. Can you be confident that all of your applications will work flawlessly? What about general overall compatibility? What if your move breaks a critical service? Experts suggest that in some circumstances, the best way of migrating clouds is move everything back locally and start the migration process from scratch. What if your company does not have the luxury of physically being able to do this? Without implicit answers to each of these questions, you can see why some administrators have cold feet about the cloud.
Given the fact that the cloud is made to scale, the last thing cloud service providers want to do is scale down. Most of these big, publically traded cloud companies want to satisfy their investors as well as the customer’s needs. Some experts suggest that cloud providers do not make it easy to migrate to another solution because making it easier to leave is simply bad business. Needless to say, consumers can sometimes be on the hook for a solution they really don’t like. Instead of being able to fix the solution, the businesses are locked into deals where it makes more sense not to take action than to take action and risk a catastrophe. As this problem begins to see more light, look for more consulting firms to pop up offering these specialized cloud to cloud migration services.
