While global cloud adoption continues to grow, recent years have seen a shift as more organisations reconsider their public cloud investments due to high costs and failure to provide an adequate return on investment (ROI).
Perhaps in some ways this should be expected. The initial rush to the cloud by many who believed it to be ‘the future’ was certain to be a mis-placed faith when its economies and performance were yet to be fully realised and experienced.
However, completely turning away from the cloud, Desktop as a Service (DaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)would be a missed opportunity for many organisations. Despite many challenges, the promise of the cloud still holds potential, with benefits in terms of scalability, flexibility and access to services. The key is for organisations to carefully assess their needs and find the right cloud approach that balances cost and functionality.
Shifting away from public cloud
There are fundamental reasons for organisations to reconsider their public cloud investments. First, public cloud costs are often excessive and difficult to forecast. In dynamic cloud environments, resources must be available on-demand, meaning data centres hold standby capacity even when it’s not in use. The costs of maintaining this idle infrastructure are ultimately passed down, leading to unexpectedly high usage fees. Not only this, but the granularity of pricing, as a factor of dynamic resourcing capability, makes working out your likely usage costs difficult and this often ends up much more expensive than anticipated.
Another factor is that most organisations don’t need the fully dynamic capabilities that public cloud offers. Many can forecast core work over several years and adequately plan their technical resources. They rarely need significant additional resources in minutes or hours. Of course, nothing is ever guaranteed, and an element of flexibility is generally required, but less dynamic and much less expensive resources make more operational and budgetary sense to most.
Public cloud services are also dominated by a few major players such as Microsoft, Amazon or Google, whose size and market power allow them to prioritise their own goals over individual business needs. Service adjustments and price changes often occur without clear communication, leaving companies with little recourse. Add in some high-profile extensive outages and it is little wonder people look back in fondness at the old days of internal infrastructure.
Flexibility and resiliency
As some organisations shift away from cloud services, there is an increasing emphasis on returning to primarily office-based working for many organisations, including – ironically – the big tech cloud providers. However, this trend does not undermine the benefits of DaaS and IaaS.
For many businesses, flexibility is key to accommodate changes in staff size, location and even the basic seating arrangement within an office. Removing fixed desk computers and on-prem infrastructure makes other operational elements much simpler to manage. When unexpected events like train strikes, poorly children, dangerous storms or any other potential issue that could prevent you from travelling to the office occur, it doesn’t mean you can’t work. And of course, for those organisations who do utilise hybrid working, cloud-based resources are ideal.
Cloud services also benefit from robust data centre infrastructure, including dual power and network connections, backup generators, and environmental controls for resilience. End users only require very lightweight devices to connect into their cloud-based desktop, which is a benefit in terms of portability, space saving and cost. Laptops or thin client PCs (which can sit on the back of monitors) are popular, but older PCs and workstations can also be repurposed as terminal machines to extend life and reduce hardware churn. Additionally, with DaaS, no data sits outside of the central, secure hosted network, reducing security risks significantly and mitigating the requirement for potentially vulnerably VPNs.
Centralising data and compute power also enhances collaborative work, particularly for businesses that handle large, complex data sets. With DaaS and IaaS, teams from different locations can collaborate effectively without issues related to data syncing, duplication, or network latency.
While DaaS and IaaS offer security benefits through centralisation and reducing vulnerable endpoints, they still require essential security measures such as MFA, decent endpoint security software and users who are kept abreast, and adhere to, best cyber security practice.
Barriers to adoption
Beyond concerns over cost, resource requirements and trust, there are other issues for those considering a move to the cloud.
Data location is always a key question, especially as many organisations have strict contractual requirements around data management. The technical expertise required for cloud adoption can also be a challenge. If an organisation lacks the necessary in-house skills, expensive external consultancy may be required to manage the transition and achieve an optimal setup.
Performance is another concern: if cloud resources are not specified and configured adequately, they will fail to meet requirements. Over provisioned resources can seem cost efficient, but only if they deliver on performance.
Lastly, having a clear, straightforward path for exiting the cloud provider is essential for future flexibility. If the exit potential is not defined clearly at the outset, it can lead to complications and unforeseen costs later on.
Ascending to the cloud successfully
These considerations should not deter organisations from adopting cloud services. They are merely important aspects to consider when reviewing potential services, helping to ensure the right questions are asked and the right services ultimately implemented.
Specifying resources accurately is essential, with an eye on the implications of inadequately considered overprovision. Organisations should also seek a balanced approach to dedicated and dynamic resources, informed by forecasted workloads and budgetary constraints. Selecting the right tools to connect to your hosted resources is crucial, considering image quality, bandwidth usage and security. There are a wide range of options available.
Evaluating vendors is equally important, don’t just default to a known public cloud provider. Consider private cloud offerings who are much more likely to meet your specific requirements and offer simpler, more competitive pricing. Lastly, organisations should consider trial periods, seek trusted references from peers and ensure that chosen solutions align with broader strategic objectives.
About the Author
Tim Whiteley is Co-Founder at Inevidesk. Inevidesk enables organisations with demanding GPU requirements to work with complete flexibility and without sacrificing performance. Underpinned by our deep expertise and industry partnerships, we unlock business value by making GPU accelerated virtual desktop infrastructure accessible to all. Our core service provides cost accessible, high performance VDI technology that can be deployed across a range of hardware options, provided by ourselves or our partners. We also provide competitively priced Infrastructure as a Service for customers who choose to host with us.
