Avoiding hidden cloud costs

Symantec's 2013 "Avoiding the Hidden Costs of the Cloud" report reveals that rogue cloud usage, backup and inefficient storage are common unaccounted-for cloud expenses.

The survey elicited responses from 3 236 companies, ranging in size from five to 5 000 employees, in 29 countries, including SA. More than 90% of organisations are discussing cloud implementation, up from 75% a year ago. This is in part due to the increased availability of predictable opex over capex and enhanced scalability.

According to Symantec, 75% of organisations reported rogue cloud usage, and of those, 40% said this had resulted in the exposure of sensitive information, sometimes resulting in stolen goods or services, defacement of Web properties, or account takeover issues.

The main reason for rogue cloud usage is to bypass IT bureaucracy, according to the report. "The cloud is so compelling that users are tired of waiting for IT departments to say yes," says JJ Milner, MD of Global Micro, an IT solutions company. "Rogue cloud applications are agile, lightweight and low cost, making them easy for users to set up. They can get what they need very easily."

The solution, says Milner, is for IT to be more responsive, preventing users from seeking external solutions. "IT departments must broaden the set of applications they offer. This may mean that they embrace a number of cloud solutions to enable the agility needed by different departments."

However, multiple cloud services cause the risk of data fragmentation, necessitating a data synchronisation strategy. "Organisations need to look for a cloud integration platform that allows these business units to be as agile as they want to be," adds Milner.

More than 40% of respondents had lost information in the cloud and had to restore from backups, according to the study. Two-thirds of those organisations saw backup fail. A further problem is the slow process of cloud recovery, with 20% of respondents saying full recovery from the cloud could take up to three days.

To avoid this problem, Milner emphasises the importance of balancing the recovery point objectives and time objectives of a backup strategy. He suggests a mixed backup strategy, with a local cached copy for critical data that is needed quickly, and backing up to a South African provider that can connect at higher speeds for lower cost on a VPN.

Cloud storage utilisation is extremely low, at only 17%, meaning organisations are paying for far more storage than they need, according to Symantec. Of the organisations surveyed, 50% say that "little or none of their data is deduplicated".

According to Milner, pricing schemes are based on the assumption that organisations will not use all the available space, meaning under-utilisation is not an important issue. If full utilisation became common practice, prices would rise, he says.

"Choose solutions that have quota management to ensure that certain users don't abuse the service and put personal documents into the repository, and make sure to use a platform that uses deduplication or compression," Milner advises to avoid over-utilisation.

Other hidden costs, according to Milner, are the location of the cloud service and type of connection used. "Try and choose cloud services delivered out of your geography," he suggests. "It reduces costs and ensures governing by familiar legal frameworks. You can get a more predictable experience connecting to local services, and at better cost."

He further suggests contract options wherever possible. "Pay-as-you-go is always more expensive than a long-term contract. Commit where you have visibility, and use pay-as-you-go only when you don't know what you need."