As COVID-19 continues changing norms across industries, the impact is emerging in the IT industry. Many companies are moving their IT services are moving to the cloud as a way of enhancing service provision. Although companies were already shifting their operations from onsite to the cloud pre-Covid-19, the shift has been accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic as well as lockdown and social distancing measures put in place to limit infections. This change is suddenly being felt as many players are now laying off their staff. For instance, IBM, under its new chief executive officer, is cutting off several jobs as a result of these changes. Although the number of staff that will be laid off is still not known, the Wall Street Journal reports that it is likely to be in thousands out of its original number of 352,600 as of the end of 2019.

Although it may appear that technician-level jobs in data centers, network administrators, systems engineers, and storage engineers among others are facing the danger of being laid off, the truth is that these jobs are moving towards companies that provide infrastructure-as-a-service. Sadly, IT personnel in organizations that need to migrate their services to the cloud are the endangered species. Experts believe that more changes are on the way as companies seek to consolidate their services and operations. The new approach to consolidation is aimed at taking advantage of virtualization and adopting a cloud-like experience on-premises approach, according to some experts. Despite these changes and layoffs, data center technicians will continue to be in demand. It is often difficult for companies to find and hire these professionals to fill specific roles.

As the data center jobs appear to be facing some challenges, traditional data center jobs are evolving into different professions, such as DevOps engineers, hardware, and infrastructure engineers, among others, therefore, changing the traditional IT operations and software development. However, although most companies are now outsourcing their services, they are keeping their staff because they still need people that will ensure they have some sense of control over their data. On the other hand, companies that deal with more sensitive information and highly secretive firms are finding outsourcing their data, and IT services uncomfortable.

The pandemic has substantially shifted the needs of companies with regard to technology, as many organizations now find it feasible and healthy for employees to access workplace resources from home. Of course, not everything can be accessed via the web, and not every industry can benefit from this shift. Regardless of this, companies that depend on on-premise systems are now changing their strategy as the cloud appears to be the future of technology.

As companies move towards subscription of super cloud services offered by major players such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, we should expect more jobs to be lost. These companies will take away traditional jobs that were reserved for IT personnel in organizations as these subscribing companies move towards cheaper yet effective options. The services offered will include hardware and software as well as networks and services, all of that will eliminate the need for IT personnel.

Although these job losses are a sign of tough things to come, they can be used as a source of inspiration by the IT professionals. Nobody wants to live without a job, but if it ever happens, professionals should turn it to their advantage by shifting to another area. Recruiters, on the other hand, need to be flexible and willing to retrain their employees to find work. This will ensure that they do not lose their source of income. Even as companies celebrate the goodies that come with cloud computing, they should also take a moment to help people pushed aside by the rush to migrate services to the cloud.   

Artificial intelligence (AI) has had a tremendous impact on many areas of computing. As the technology matures, its influence continues to expand in the cloud computing world. AI is used by providers both to manage their resources and to offer advanced services to their customers. It is being woven into the fabric of computing services at a consistently increasing pace.

The symbiosis between AI and cloud computing promises to elevate the functionality and diversity of the products available from cloud providers. New solutions based on AI are being researched and developed that will result in major benefits to the scientific, healthcare, and business communities. Let’s look at a few of the ways AI and the complementary technology of machine learning (ML) are being used in cloud computing today and what developments lie just beyond the horizon.

Microsoft and FedEx Surround

Logistics giant FedEx has partnered with Microsoft to build a system for predicting package delivery delays. The platform, known as Surround, uses the artificial intelligence capabilities of Microsoft Azure to predict issues that may impact the ability of commercial shippers using the FedEx network to deliver goods to retailers. The system also promises to offer a more transparent method of tracking packages.

Surround can benefit organizations by allowing companies to move more merchandise. The tool enables a company to identify where demand for their products exist so that inventory can be moved to those locations. It also has demonstrated utility for streamlining the delivery of time-sensitive shipments such as those of medical equipment.

Amazon’s Lex and Polly

Amazon is using its cloud infrastructure and AI expertise to offer two innovative communication solutions. Amazon Lex leverages the advanced deep learning functionality of its trademark Alexa virtual assistant to build conversational interfaces that can be incorporated into applications using voice and text. Solutions using Lex can process and understand human speech so they can intelligently respond to user requests. Chatbots fulfilling a variety of roles have been developed with Lex including those used by call centers and banking applications.

Amazon Polly takes the opposite approach and enables applications to turn text into lifelike speech. AI and machine learning are responsible for improved speech quality and the ability for customers to use a newscaster or conversational speaking style so it meshes with their applications. Polly offers real-time streaming of high-quality voice output in male and female voices in a wide range of languages.

Indiana University and Jetstream 2

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Indiana University a $10 million grant to deploy a distributed cloud computing system that uses AI to power on-demand research and data analysis. The system offers researchers an easy to use supercomputing platform that will enable smaller academic institutions to access previously unavailable resources. Jetstream 2 was constructed to provide AI to every research initiative regardless of the project’s scale. With the increased focus of research intended to stem the COVID-19 virus, the additional resources available to scientists are sorely needed.

These are just a few examples of how AI and cloud computing are working together to solve problems across many market sectors and disciplines. The pace of innovation shows no signs of slowing down and promises a steady stream of cutting-edge solutions.

The cloud computing sector is expected to continue to exhibit consistent growth for at least the next several years. According to forecasts by Gartner, by 2022 the revenue generated from worldwide public cloud services will exceed $350 billion. Software as a Service (SaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are the cloud models that make up the majority of market share, but all cloud services are poised to experience increased revenue.

The financial resources that companies are investing in cloud computing make it an attractive target for prospective IT professionals. There are also many opportunities for current information technology practitioners to use their talents in the realm of cloud computing. If you are considering a career in cloud computing, there are specific skills that you should focus on developing or improving. Having these skills in hand will give you a better chance of obtaining a position in the field of cloud computing.

Hard Skills Required in Cloud Computing

There are technical skills that are widely used in cloud computing that are beneficial to anyone with an interest in the field.  

• Databases are becoming increasingly important as organizations struggle to make the most productive use of their data resources. Among the allures of the cloud are the database options offered by cloud providers. Being well-versed in database technology gives you a foot up in the cloud computing arena. 

• Coding and programming are skills appreciated in all types of IT environments. Some of the languages in demand in cloud computing include Perl, Python, and Ruby. 

• The increased use of Linux systems in cloud computing has made knowledge of the platform essential for well-rounded cloud computing professionals. Building, maintaining, and administering Linux systems are skills that will be put to good use in cloud computing. 

 Soft Skills That Benefit Cloud Computing Professionals

Some non-technical skills will help set you up for a successful career in cloud computing. These attributes will also serve you well in other areas of the business world. 

• Project management is important in multiple aspects of cloud computing. Planning and tracking the progress of migrations and calculating the human and financial resources required when engaging cloud services are facilitated with project management skills. 

• Knowledge of the business processes that may be migrated to cloud providers is an essential component that contributes to the success of the move. The ability to understand and communicate the details of core business processes to the technical team is critically important.  

• Accounting skills are important for all members of IT teams working with cloud providers. Understanding how small changes in how an organization’s use of cloud resources can affect corporate budgets is beneficial for everyone from management through system admins.  

• Legal knowledge can help make decisions regarding the use of cloud services. Compliance and regulatory oversight are two obvious areas where legal expertise can be useful. Other areas that require legal proficiency pertain to service level agreements (SLAs) and the depreciation of hardware when cloud migrations are under consideration.  

A combination of specific hard and soft skills can increase the probability of a suc

When the world’s economy came to a halt as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, countries have experienced a dramatic increase in the levels of unemployment. These rates have been driven by the social distancing guidelines, damage to the supply chain, and the lockdown. These guidelines have left many countries and citizens struggling to manage as the rates of unemployment keep spiraling.

In the United States, different states have come up with different strategies of responding to the unemployment occasioned by the pandemic. Cloud computing is one of them. Cloud-based technologies are transforming how governments communicate and serve citizens. As businesses lay off employees owing to the economic slowdown, the rise in unemployment has tested the capacity of governments and the existing systems. In March alone, over 3 million people filed for unemployment, making it the highest ever-rate of unemployment in history. Since then, the pace at that unemployment claims have been accelerating has been staggering. In just seven weeks, people who have filed first-time unemployment claims have risen to more than 33 million.

The increase in the unemployment fillings has put an unprecedented strain on the government unemployment systems. Some of the websites have crashed, leading to delayed aid to citizens, most of whom are out of work due to the coronavirus related issues. According to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, more than 26 unemployment insurance websites have crashed in the past few days. This is a good case study for organizations and governments that have for long, invested little in the IT infrastructure. However, with cloud computing solutions, there is a brighter future. Cloud-based solutions are helping insurance systems in the country to process insurance claims faster. Cloud-based infrastructure is critical and is helping increase the capacity of websites to prevent crashing and handling workload.

Although past disasters such as hurricanes pushed the legacy systems in place, none of them has caused massive crashing like the one being witnessed now. According to the North Carolina Division of Employment Security, cloud applications have enabled the government to upgrade unemployment systems faster than ever before. It adds scalability and reliability, aspects that were not as good as they ought to be before under the legacy systems.

 In New York, Google has created a system that helps in the management of unemployment claims. With this new system, the new agencies can significantly reduce the backlog to just 4305 from 275000. Rhode Island has also shifted unemployment processing to the cloud. According to Scott Jensen, the director of Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training, the state’s systems, that were based on three decades COBOL mainframe, the cloud-based solutions will handle the COVID-19-related claims. This would have been catastrophic under the legacy systems. The Rhode Island system is a duplication of a cloud infrastructure that allows people to sign up for the program outside the main UI system. It allows residents to get data from a form, and the data is then loaded into the mainframe during peak times. The same cloud is also used in Rhode Island to fix issues and allow the state to get more information on the number of people calling the call center at once.

Although the new cloud-based solutions were confusing to many at first, they have shown their capability and potential to help overcome the challenges of the legacy systems. The strategy of deploying cloud systems will ease the unemployment insurance programs in different states. The new generation technology of cloud computing is suited for such occasions and will, without a doubt, make the difference that agencies carrying out unemployment processing are looking for.

As businesses continue discovering the benefits that cloud computing can present with regard to efficiency and profitability, the use of cloud technologies continues to skyrocket. In the US for example, at least 70 percent of companies, whether public, private, or hybrid use cloud computing according to research done by IDG in 2016.

Owing to the evidence of the impact of cloud computing which has been seen over time, people are no longer talking about why cloud computing should be adopted. Rather, they now talk about how they can move operations and services to the cloud. These are the issues you need to consider before migrating to the cloud:

1. Make sure your cloud applications are an improvement to the on-premise applications you already have

Every business’ intention is to have systems that are better than what they already have in order to compete favorably in a highly competitive business landscape. This is no exception when migrating to the cloud. Your new cloud systems must give you the competitive edge you need as you cannot afford to lose anything when migrating to the cloud.  Ensure that you only pay for what you will use to avoid duplication and costs. You should ensure that you change everything to meet the shifting demands by improving the efficiency of your systems.

2. Decide where and what processes to start with

Moving to a cloud is not something you start and finish once. Rather, you need to have a concrete plan that involves moving operations in phases to avoid total disaster in case of a failure. Since it is new technology, it requires a phased approach where simple business processes are moved first and lessons learned from the previous phase applied to the next one. For a company that has subsidiaries or branches, you can start with one branch and scale your deployment to other branches.

3. Manage compatibility and interoperability with other vendors

Interoperability is perhaps one of the leading areas of concern when migrating to the cloud. As you select your cloud vendors, one of the leading areas you should investigate is compatibility of architecture and applications with other vendors. Incompatibility can cost your business a lot and can be the cause of problems when you want to migrate to another cloud service provider. You should also address integration issues that can create separate silos and affect operations.

4. Ensure the strategy of your vendor aligns to your company’s business strategy

Failure to align cloud strategy to business strategy remains the single most challenging area for many organizations and ends up jeopardizing everything. Before you commit to a cloud vendor, take your time to acquaint yourself with the architectural requirements of the service provider. Ensure that the service provider you choose offers all the capabilities that a company needs such as reporting options, budgeting features, and planning options as well as regulatory compliance. Most importantly, ensure that the vendor has integration and security strategies that can be verified by other businesses. Furthermore, inquire the investment of the vendor on future technologies such as blockchain, machine learning and IoT all of which signify intentions of the company to adapt to the future as you would always want your company to do.

IT departments responsible for facilitating the migration of companies’ cloud-based infrastructure often find themselves struggling due to the many issues they face. Most of these challenges are due to the complexity of managing different environments. The issues have been made even more difficult by the growing number of the new cloud initiatives which increases complexity therefore leaving the IT teams wondering about how they are going to update legacy IT environments and processes into a state that befits the prevailing digital space.

Mistakes are common in many IT projects. However, any project management professional will tell you that some mistakes are just too risky and some can even keep you from moving forward and succeeding. The same can be said about cloud migration. Cloud migration mistakes can be costly and companies can lose not only money but also time. If the company fails to identify these mistakes early, chances are that the mistakes can end up badly impacting not only the performance but may also damage confidence in your company’s cloud strategy. It may also lead to loss of confidence in the company’s IT team leaders which may hamper adoption of cloud strategy. As an IT team leader therefore, you should identify the potential issues that you can encounter while implementing cloud strategy and address them to ensure that your cloud deployment is successful. Here are three crucial issues that you need to watch in migrating to the cloud.

1. Failure to analyze your apps before the migration

Failure to analyze the company’s applications before migrating to the cloud is an issue that has bungled many cloud strategies. Before any kind of movement, you will need to do an analysis of applications to determine whether they are good for migration or not. For instance, you can do this by splitting the apps into two groups of apps – one listing the apps which will be replaced and the other of those which will be migrated. For example, you can replace on-premise email application with a cloud app like Microsoft’s Office 365. As an IT manager, you should consider checking how sensitive the application is to compliance. Companies on the other hand should be aware of apps which are sensitive to workloads. Initial app analysis enables a company to identify the attributes of all apps and enables one to avoid potential issues during the migration phase.

2. Not carrying out business analysis before migration

Embarking on migration without a clear business case is another issue which sees companies trying unsuccessfully to migrate to the cloud without understanding the benefits of it. Although some may think that migrating to the cloud is as easy as picking an application and moving it, the truth actually is that lack of business analysis may jeopardize everything. The analysis should include financial implications of migration, requirements, space required and the benefits that migrating to the cloud brings.

3. Inadequate training

 Although you might be in charge of many IT personnel, there are chances that most of them don’t know a lot about the cloud. This might be worse when it comes to cloud migration which makes the whole thing more complex. Since finding cloud-savvy employees can be expensive, you will have to train your personnel to reduce problems that are encountered and increase speed. You might need to find some consultants who are experienced in this area to train employees on the correct cloud migration strategies and how the it can be used in general. Inadequate training may cause legacy knowledge to be brought into the cloud which in the end may impact productivity and strategy in general. This has been one of the biggest challenges that many companies encounter during cloud migration.

Going by the discussions that are happening in the corporate world and the evident influx of new technologies, it is clear that businesses are changing their approaches to computing. Businesses have gone digital. It’s impossible to talk about computing without mentioning cloud computing, which is perhaps the leading buzzword in the world of technology. It’s promising to alter the corporate landscape for the better.

A critical factor to consider is how it can be used best and managed appropriately to achieve the needs of a company and explore cloud computing’s full potential. Here are the 4 most important things that companies need to understand about cloud computing and its management.

Performance

It is true that cloud computing can offer enhanced performance. However, it is important to note that there are instances whereby erratic performance can be experienced. This, of course, depends on the vendor. That’s why selecting the right vendor is critical. Before making a long-term commitment, make sure that you have a service level agreement (SLA) which guarantees all services required and which you are paying for. You also need to ensure that the services will always be available and verify the guaranteed availability before initiating the agreement

Security

For any company security of information is the most important aspect that must be guaranteed by a cloud service provider. It is not always easy to keep the systems secure as this requires investment in both technical and non-technical resources. Public cloud service providers are often highly secured and have cutting edge security mechanisms making them highly protected. Ensure you have highly trained employees to handle all emergencies with regard to security and be aware of the cost associated.

Portability

Before making a commitment to sign for a particular vendor, always take into account interoperability and portability. Many companies struggle with vendor-lock after signing up with some cloud companies. Among the leading issues which have been reported are setups of architectures and tools that some cloud vendors use which make migrating to another provider expensive and difficult. When looking for a vendor and during configuration, you should always make sure that industry standard settings such as APIs, data formats and protocols are used. This makes migration from one vendor to another not only less complicated but also less expensive.

Expertise

With the ever-changing technological landscape, new challenges associated with having the right expertise crop up. Consequently, managing services driven by technologies such as cloud computing require the right human resources to ensure operations run efficiently. This has become a huge challenge to organizations as experts in cloud computing are few and cloud technologies change constantly. So, IT staff must be trained adequately and regularly to handle different aspects of cloud computing. Also consider getting outside help to fill the existing gaps.

Government and private agencies are now shifting their computing operations to the cloud. This has been accelerated by the huge advantages that the cloud has over legacy IT because of its effectiveness, cost efficiency, scalability, and performance. However, various cloud computing issues still haunt its users. These challenges are mostly associated with the increased levels of complexity that demand that the CIO identifies the right vendor for the applications to run on and the features available from the stated vendor. These are some of the most important issues you need to address when planning to move your operations to the cloud.

Have a well-defined strategy and a business objective

There are various reasons why you should consider migrating to the cloud which includes agility, cost, scalability, digital transformation and flexibility. However, many people don’t get it right when it comes to aligning the cloud strategy with the business strategy. Your organization’s business strategy must dictate the cloud strategy. This may be complex in many instances as many companies may face problems due to lack of alignment of cloud strategy with the existing business objectives.

Security, time and cost

Cost is a significant issue faced by companies, but cost, security and time are also major stumbling blocks. Transferring data to the cloud is often a slow process that can take both man hours and bandwidth to succeed. Moreover, cloud computing being a new technology raises some security doubts which need to be understood and addressed accordingly. Overcoming these challenges is often one of the biggest hurdles but must be addressed regardless.

Get people and processes right

The biggest challenge when it comes to the adoption of cloud is not technology. On the contrary, it is usually people and processes. These two must change to adapt to the new needs and changes in the organization. However, this may end up taking a lot of time therefore negatively affecting cloud adoption. For you to manage transition easily, consider adding tech innovation test centers to make the entire process easier. Large companies are likely to face massive challenges when it comes to adopting the cloud fully as a result of complications which may come up in the transition process.

Select the right platform

Among the leading cloud computing issues is the failure by companies to pick the right platform. CIOs should always take their time to compare platforms and choose the most appropriate one that meets the technical requirements for each workload. The chosen platform should also meet the unique needs of your firm and suit its line of business. A smart company performs a comparative analysis of the existing platforms and chooses the one which fits all its business needs.

In summary, cloud transformation is a long process that can be simplified with the right expertise. To effect a successful cloud adoption, you should always keep in mind that selection of cloud vendors is a process and not an event and a process is a step by step undertaking.

Major universities back the National Research Cloud, a new project intended to make the cloud more accessible to researchers, reports the New York Times.

Leading universities and major technology companies agreed on Tuesday to back a new project intended to give academics and other scientists access to the computing resources now available mainly to a few tech giants.

Read the article on The New York Times

According to ZD Net, Amazon Web Services is bringing a new sector online that caters to the aerospace industry.

Amazon Web Services on Tuesday announced it's establishing a new business unit dedicated to the global aerospace and satellite industry. 

Read the article on ZD Net

ID management company Okta, which is cloud based, reports it now has 99.999 percent uptime, reports ZD Net.

Okta, the cloud-based identity management firm, said Thursday that it can officially promise all of its customers 99.99 percent uptime at no additional cost

Read the article on ZD Net

According to CBR Online, Amazon’s CloudFront has been used for Ransomware attacks. 

Amazon’s CloudFront is being used to host Command & Control (C&C) infrastructure for a ransomware campaign that has successfully hit at least two multinational companies in the food and services sectors, according to a report by security firm Symantec.

Read the article on CBR Online

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the strategies of many companies, including their spending. This change has tipped the scale in favor of remote technologies, that are now being adopted massively as work turns from office to working from home. With the revenues of many businesses now suffering from the virus, many organizations are trying their best to limit costs as much as possible. This has seen most of them opting for remote work solutions, changing shifts, and putting some staff on unpaid leave to reduce the cost of business. With all these, the cloud appears to be seeing an increase in expenditure as the acquisition of cloud-based solutions increases. Cost is always a major driver for many migrations, but most companies poorly understand it in the beginning.

For startups, it is okay for them to see the value of cloud when they have used non in the past, but when they are still using old systems and legacy software, finding out the potential cost of moving to the cloud is not that easy. However, with the speed of modern business and the rapid response to the coronavirus pandemic, that is aimed at enabling millions of employees to work remotely, it is now clear that living in the world without cloud technology will not be easy in the modern era.

No time in history has exposed many industries than what we are experiencing today. The pandemic has shown the need for IT resources, that are always available led by the cloud. Even with the virus affecting most operations, the cloud has continued to show the reason why people are finding it useful for businesses. As the damage of coronavirus continues affecting office-based operations in different companies, cloud computing is turning out to be the refuge that these businesses look for at such a time of need. Companies are now relying heavily on technology to keep going. According to a report by Flexera, more than 20 percent of companies spend more than $1 million every month on the cloud. This is expected to double in the next 12 months, where projections found that companies will spend up to 47% on average to grow cloud. The report by Flexera based on a survey of 750 decision-makers and users also point out that companies are 23% over the budget. The respondents, however, noted that they are wasting 30% of their cloud expenditure.

Even with the pressure from the coronavirus, companies must devise a way of managing their cloud expenditure. There is a need for a balance between responding to the effects of the pandemic and keeping the expenditure reasonable. Although spending on all other IT categories will go down this year due to the suspension of operations, cloud technologies will still make the most. Companies will need a way of supporting their on-premise resources and improve the working experience of remote employees. The problem, however, is what is needed, and for how long since the time that the pandemic is expected to be over is not known. However, companies must use data from mid-March up to now and project what is required and what is not. Also, this information can help the forecast of what goes up and what will go down.

With the costs going up, companies must employ new tactics to stay on top of the expenses, most of that are unpredictable. Despite the cost management being challenging, as shown by Flexera because of the complexity and difficulty in usage forecasting, businesses should consider monitoring their spending usage and spending daily. They should also ensure that unused workloads are taken down to reduce the cost of operations in such a time when spending needs to be limited as much as possible.

As many industries reevaluate their go-to-market strategies amid the pandemic - not every business is suffering. Take for instance streaming video on-demand (SVOD) subscriptions like Netflix and Disney+ who have seen an increase in viewership as people are mandated to stay home due to Covid-19. But will streaming services see a depletion of subscribers once people venture outdoors again and are all SVODs doing well in this time of uncertainty?

Where other SVOD services have failed to grow (I’m looking at you Quibi), Disney+ wasted no time -amassing nearly 55 million subscribers in just six months. The streaming service that rolled out in November already has more subscribers than Hulu who clocks in at around 32 million.

Netflix which is still the leader in streaming services has a whopping 182.8 million subscribers. During their earnings call in April- Netflix reported that they had 23% more subscribers than this time last year earning $5.7 billion dollars in revenue. While many analysts wonder if these new subscribers will stay once the pandemic is over – at least one Bank of America analyst doesn’t think they should be worried. Nat Schindler told Yahoo Finance,  “We anticipate the step-up will result in a permanent increase in penetration for Netflix's subscriber model and see its low price-point and staple nature supporting healthy fundamentals performance in a recession, even after stay-home orders are lifted.”

While many SVOD services have seen a rise in viewership – what happens when the pandemic is over? Does it really make sense for a family of four to keep subscriptions to all of the available services? The market is getting tight and eventually families will have to make sacrifices as to which streaming services to keep.

In a survey of 1,000 viewers who have more than two SVOD subscriptions, FLIXED found that out of the main streaming services (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Apple TV+), viewers would most likely drop Apple TV+ over any of their other memberships. Like Disney+ - Apple TV+ debuted in November 2019 but unlike Disney+ met little to no fanfare. The platform that costs just $4.99 doesn’t seem to resonate with viewers as 36% of those surveyed said that they would most likely not renew their subscription to Apple TV+. While Apple has yet to reveal how many subscribers they actually have – analysts put the number at around 30 million – but many of those subscribers are getting it free for the first year. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi of Berstein told the Financial Post that one of the reasons Apple TV+ has fallen short is because it was "failing to resonate with customers, perhaps due to its limited content offerings."

Like Apple TV+ - Quibi – a much hyped streaming services that delivers shows that are 10 minutes or less to a subscriber’s phone has also failed to resonate with audiences. Debuting in March- Quibi only has 3.5 million subscribers (1.7 million who are considered “active”). While many could blame the series of blunders (not allowing users to share clips online, only available for Android phones)-  owner Jeffrey Katzenberg blames the pandemic – the same pandemic that is helping other SVOD services excel. "I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus,” he told The New York Times. 

As Covid-19 continues to keep people at home – subscribers will flock to Streaming Video On-Demand services for entertainment. In a convoluted market – not all streaming services will succeed. If the current number of subscribers are any indication - Netflix will continue to reign while SVODs like Apple TV+ and Quibi could be in big trouble.

Cloud computing platforms have been marketed for years as a cheaper option. However, despite the popularity that the cloud has gained, the truth is that organizations still face challenges as they try to manage costs. According to a study by Flexera, a company that offers IT management software, 84 percent of companies find optimization of cloud costs a challenge, while a survey in 2019 also revealed that organizations underestimate their wastage when it comes to cloud computing. This shows that the advantages of using cloud are not always clear, and the cost ends up being more than what companies anticipate.

Migrating from on-site storage to the cloud is one of the top aspects that make cloud expensive. As companies look for cloud applications and infrastructure during their migration, they may find themselves incurring high costs. When organizations are analyzing the cost of cloud platforms, some often assume that the cloud is the same as on-premise deployments. The reality, however, is that cloud platforms provide enterprise-grade applications, networks and servers that mean high upfront costs. They also enable organizations to deploy in minutes with little expertise that would otherwise be required in case of in-house servers.

Bigger gets better

The issue of cost control comes from the ability of organizations to exploit the standard pricing structures of prominent cloud vendors. Doing so helps them get value for their money and gives them the capability to negotiate their own deals with cloud vendors out of the existing standard pricing strictures. Mature organizations have an advantage when it comes to getting better bargains for their money, according to KPMG. Cloud computing service providers such as AWS seem to favor such organizations if they commit to a specific level of compute with incremental discounts. However, companies that have limited resources and cannot commit to high computing power will not get these discounts and end up spending more.

While mature companies have experience and tools to help them plan better, small organizations on the other hand may encounter various challenges mainly due to poor planning. Better planning may translate to better deals depending on how companies reserve their computing power. Proper planning means that a company can understand what they need, when, how and in the process make a good bargain that is devoid of wastage. Large companies can also offer creative deals to cloud service providers. An example of a good deal is between BP, an energy company and AWS, who reached an agreement where BP can offer 170 MW of renewable energy in exchange for cloud computing services.

Making the deal

Although creativity can be critical in such negotiations, companies in need of cloud services must prepare adequately. How they manage cloud consumption is a challenge in getting value for the investment. Identifying what your company needs and what it does not require for its operations is crucial to maintaining the operational costs and ensuring there is value out of services that you get from service providers. You have to look at early adopters and learn from their mistakes since going to the market with enough knowledge gives your company room to negotiate. Similarly, companies must forecast demand to ensure that cloud applications and databases are configured to meet any possible event in the market and minimize consumption. Leaving everything to the service provider is also not worth it.

The bottom line is, if properly managed, cloud can offer capabilities that would otherwise be too expensive and highly labor intensive when done in-house. However, the ability to scale up and down is an aspect that many organizations fail to capitalize on that leaves cloud expensive for some. Using this flexibility of the cloud as required will make it economical and equally effective.

When an organization decides to move some or all of its computing environment to the cloud, selecting the right provider is of paramount importance. Making the right choice can lead to a fruitful relationship with a cloud partner that benefits your business. Selecting the wrong provider may result in unfulfilled expectations regarding the financial and operational implications of the move.

There are many cloud providers from which to make your choice. While Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure are currently the biggest players, many smaller and more specialized providers exist that may make sense for a particular implementation. This post offers some guidance as to what to look for in a provider and some questions to answer before entering into a contract with one of them.

Differentiating Characteristics of Cloud Providers

Getting past the marketing hype can be difficult, as every provider believes they have the best solution for your needs. Here are some specific factors that should be considered before committing to a cloud provider. 

Security and compliance - The security of your systems and data are critical no matter where they are located. Trusting them to the cloud requires you to determine how basic security will be provided and if there are additional protections that can be obtained at an extra cost. There are shared security responsibilities in a cloud implementation, with both customer and vendor sharing the burden of protecting the environment. Compliance is also performed in a shared manner and the details need to be fully understood to avoid the inability to provide evidence that your systems are complying with security and privacy regulations.

Management responsibilities - Varying degrees of customer involvement in managing the cloud platform result from adopting different cloud models. A Software as a Service (SaaS) implementation will usually require very little customer management, whereas they may have significant responsibility for a move that employs the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.

Architecture and storage - The underlying architecture used by the provider may influence your decision to use them for your cloud computing needs. Certain providers may use tools and applications that facilitate integrating your environment into their infrastructure. For instance, if your business relies heavily on Microsoft products, you may benefit from discounts and licenses offered through Azure. The method used to store your data and the flexibility afforded in how and when you can access it are other factors that need to be clarified.

Pricing structure - Billing may be done in a variety of ways and some of them may work better in a particular situation. Most providers offer on-demand payment plans with some also providing discounts for long-term or volume usage.

Other considerations - You may also be concerned with the physical location and safety of the data center that will house your environment. Other important factors include the history of downtime and level of support you can expect from the provider when a problem arises. 

Putting it All Together

A thorough investigation of the factors outlined above will help your organization make a good choice when selecting their cloud provider. You need to enter the relationship with a full understanding of what you are getting, how much it will cost, and the expectations that will be placed on your team. Taking the time to determine these facts before the engagement begins makes it much more probable that your journey to the cloud will return the benefits you desire.