The digital and cybersecurity skills shortage in one of the most well-documented issues organisations are faced with today. With recent reports estimating that there are currently 600,000 unfilled tech jobs in the UK, which is costing the economy a staggering £63 billion every year. As a result of the skills shortage, organisations today are heavily reliant on digital tools to bridge any gaps these unfilled roles are creating, and one of the most popular technologies that is being adopted is the Cloud.
It is estimated that 88 percent of UK organisations today use some form of Cloud, which is a staggering number that highlights how popular the technology has recently become. By moving to the Cloud organisations can embrace some of the many benefits it offers and, because the Cloud means data can be managed by Cloud vendors, rather than by in-house teams it can also help to bridge the skills shortage.
However, one issue organisations are increasingly facing is the challenge of Cloud vendor lock-in. This is when a company becomes trapped with a specific Cloud vendor, because transitioning data and applications from one vendor to another creates challenges and costs that are difficult to overcome.
Cloud-vendor lock-in
With cybercrime becoming such a huge problem for businesses today, and the need for data to be available 24/7, it is not surprising that when an organisation moves to the Cloud they don’t like the idea of putting all their confidential information in one place. If a Cloud provider suffered a security breach or downtime all the company’s data could be affected, which could have detrimental consequences.
As a result, organisations often feel more comfortable using multiple vendors and taking the features from each that best suit their needs, however this is an expensive approach as it means investing money in multiple Cloud vendors and of course having staff who are trained in each platform, which can be difficult considering the digital skills shortage.
Another challenge organisations face with this strategy is that Cloud vendors would rather an organisation works with just one provider and will encourage them to do so by offering preferential rates, which the organisation may be inclined to take even though the vendor does not entirely satisfy their needs.
If an organisation opts to do this but then a few years down the line decides to move to another vendor that better suits their requirements a challenge they may face is that their data is no longer compatible with other Cloud vendors.
This is an approach many Cloud vendors take to help lock-in customers and make it more challenging for companies to move to one of their competitors. The approach can make organisations feel trapped and tied down to a specific vendor and may deter them from transitioning to another vendor out of fear of losing data or because the process can be extremely time-consuming and costly.
This of course begs the question, what can be done to avoid Cloud vendor lock-in while still embracing the benefits the Cloud has to offer?
Avoiding Cloud-vendor lock-in with Serverless
The good news is that today new tools have become available which can help organisations overcome the challenges they are facing with Cloud vendor lock-in.
These open-source, solutions are compatible with all the leading Cloud vendors, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform, and they allow organisations to easily move between them, selecting the best features from each to suit their organisation.
These solutions can also help organisations overcome digital skills shortages as they don’t need to hire personnel skilled in all the major Cloud platforms, which can of course help organisations reduce costs.
Cloud vendor lock-in is a very real issue faced by many organisations today, however, fortunately, new tools are becoming available to help tackle the problem. These solutions are built of Serverless, open-source technology and they run natively with all the leading Cloud vendors. This allows organisations to adopt the best Cloud applications for their organisation and help cut down on costs.
Dann is an architect, full stack developer and innovator with a strong focus on bringing great products to market, rapidly. He is at his happiest when coding and creating technology that pushes boundaries. He leads teams that create world-class products and founded multiple innovative companies. Dann also sits on the leading edge of technology but always focus on bringing real business benefits and value.