Mass Confusion “Reigns”
from the Clouds
A
sk the average business owner what they think
of Cloud technology and you will get five different
answers. Ask the same of the man on the street
and you will get ten. The average person cannot accurately
describe that which cannot be seen, and hence there is
mass confusion out there. This is not the first time we have
encountered this.
Every time a major technology shift occurs, the disruption
brings confusion. Confusion generally leads to fear, and
fear tends to paralyse the relevant decision makers. We
saw this with the shift from mainframe to the personal
computer. And again with the shift from the stand-alone
PC to the networked PC, the advent of the internet, unified
communication and most recently with the social media explosion. I could go on and on. So how is Cloud any different
and how can we as the professional IT community help to
bridge the gap from fear to understanding?
The first task is to understand what the fears are so we can
adequately address them. comScore recently surveyed 400
SMB businesses across the US and Europe, and reported
that approximately 45% had steered clear of IaaS, Paas,
and SaaS due to fears around security, loss of control and
reliability.
On the local front, Microsoft SA commissioned a study with
the IDC to speak to 248 local companies across both SMB
16 | www.firstdistribution.co.za
and the large enterprise customer segment about their IT
needs and preferences. 44% surveyed said they needed
more information before they could make a decision on
Cloud. 50% had security concerns, and 48% said they were
unclear on the return on the investment in Cloud technology.
From this and other studies the top five reasons why some
customers avoid Cloud are:
•
•
•
•
•
They don’t know what Cloud Computing is.
They think it’s not cost effective or don’t under
stand the ROI model.
They think their data will not be secure.
Their systems will run slower due to bandwidth
issues.
The Cloud service provider might fail.
I think it safe to say that our role in assisting to put these
fears to rest is to utilise every possible opportunity to
communicate what Cloud Computing is and what is being
done to address these concerns. Each of the above five
fears have sufficient individual answers dependent on the
type of Cloud business you are in. Going into your business
conversations knowing what is on the mind of your customer, significantly shortens the sales cycle, and closes out the
chance of them going to your competition to find answers to
their questions. As in the case of the person who is preparing
to bungee-jump for the first time, the instructor instinctively