Lower costs can be bad for business – Risk

Executives often need to balance economics and risk. The more risk assumed, the lower is the cost. Risk and cost seem to have an inverse relationship. Cloud is an opportunity to change paradigms. The shift comes from a change in perspective. Because cloud is an economic innovation, much of its pricing model builds on economies of scale. An entire team of administrators, security experts, technicians, and engineers can be acquired as part of a service for a server priced at pennies per hour. Because of the specialization, deep knowledge, 24x7 operation, automation, and employed best practices, one could argue that this situation is a much lower risk than the overworked, underpaid frustrated internal IT guru who has virtually no training in cybersecurity and is sick of answering calls after hours.

Also mentioned earlier was the situation where the same configured server represented a 3,200% difference in price from a low-cost provider to a high-cost one. It is a guarantee that every provider along that continuum from low to high offers a different level of service quality, automation, support, security, patching, management, and monitoring for that price. Because cloud appears to be lower cost, it does not mean that cloud is optimal for your unique situation and business challenges. Cloud is a tool in the tool bag. Screwdrivers should not get used when driving nails. Cloud is the right tool when used for the right job.