Hidden Costs of the Cloud

What You Need to Know‍

The cloud has undoubtedly transformed the way organizations operate.

The cloud tends to offer many benefits, such as on-demand resources, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Most businesses nowadays have shifted to either a hybrid or a hybrid private cloud architecture. However, the adoption of the cloud hasn’t been exactly smooth for everyone. There are several hidden costs of the cloud that may catch you off guard if you’re not fully aware of them. Understanding these costs is essential to budget accurately for your IT services in the long run.

Welcome to another video in our series Uptime with Richard Luna, where Richard Luna, CEO of Protected Harbor, will discuss the cloud’s actual costs. Below, we will touch on some of the hidden costs of the cloud, how they can impact your business and what you can do about it.

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What Are the Hidden Costs of the Cloud?

As we’ve already established, the cloud has some hidden costs that many companies are unaware of. This can affect their budgeting, decision-making, and long-term strategy. Business leaders may alter their entire IT strategy based on these hidden costs. From a financial standpoint, hidden fees can include data transfer, cloud utilization, migration, and business process reengineering costs.

Data Transfer Costs – These are costs associated with transferring data between on-premise resources and cloud-based resources. Depending on where your data is stored, you may have to incur the data transfer costs.

Cloud Utilization Costs– Public cloud service providers demand a fee each time a business tries to access its data. Cloud companies are betting on huge demand despite the low fees—which can occasionally amount to cents per hour.

Migration Costs – Organizations migrating their applications to the cloud may incur costs for retooling legacy applications for the cloud.

Business Process Reengineering Costs– Organizations occasionally anticipate that a move to the cloud will boost overall functionality and efficiency. However, the reality is any problems that may have existed before a cloud move will persist there. The initial transformation might be finished, but continuous business modifications will still be required, resulting in increased spending.

Private Cloud: A Better Alternative

Richard recommends, “To overcome some of the hidden costs of the cloud, organizations can opt for the private cloud.” A private cloud is an on-premises version of the public cloud where IT organizations control access, security, and the level of scalability. A private cloud is an isolated environment within your organization’s data center. It has its dedicated hardware, software, networking resources, and other utilities. A private cloud may incur some hidden costs. But these hidden costs are typically less than those associated with public cloud services. You can also use a public-private hybrid cloud. This combines a public cloud platform and a private cloud environment. A hybrid cloud is often used to host sensitive information because it’s more secure than a public cloud. You can also host non-sensitive information on a public cloud platform while keeping your critical data on a private cloud.

Conclusion

Many cloud providers are offering their services, but not all of them are the same. If you want to avoid hidden costs and stay on the safe side, you need to move to a private cloud. This way, you will have complete control over your data and won’t have to worry about any unexpected charges. With a private cloud from Protected Harbor, you can optimize your IT investments, avoid data breaches, and save money.

At Protected Harbor, we keep up with the latest technology, continuously invest in our people and infrastructure, and always look for ways to improve. We are experts in cloud implementation, partner with the biggest names in the software industry, and are dedicated to delivering a superior experience for every customer. If you’re looking to opt or migrate to a private or hybrid cloud or even other managed IT services, our experts are there to help you.