5 Common Cloud Obstacles & Pitfalls

Last updated on May 23rd, 2023 at 6:00pm

As organizations desire to innovate faster, reduce overhead costs, and be more secure, migrating to the cloud has become a trend and a necessity.

Today, there are many different cloud platforms. Moving to the cloud brings many benefits ranging from cost efficiency, scalability, and innovative resources – like machine learning and AI – that were impractical or not previously possible in an on-prem or private cloud environment. Although the public cloud is one of the most accessible pathways to the cloud, it can be tricky and, if done improperly, can make things worse. The complexity only increases as organizations add new cloud service providers.

The main obstacle to successful cloud adoption? A failure to adapt processes for a cloud environment. Conventional IT management remains siloed and reactive. In contrast, a public cloud works in real-time and thus requires a unique approach.

Successful cloud adoption can also optimize the user experience. Luckily, cloud management and optimization don't need to take time and energy. These are the top five common cloud challenges that you should be aware of and how you can avoid them.

1. Lack of Visibility and Automation to Prevent Overspending

It's too easy to overspend when you don't have visibility or control over your budget. Most companies need to track multiple budgets across departments and hold them accountable to those budgets but lack the personnel or infrastructure to do so. As a result, business leaders are left frustrated and confused.

Companies can avoid this common pitfall by granting access to view cloud costs across multiple parts of an organization; this includes more than just the finance team. For example, giving product and development leadership, and in some cases, the developers themselves, visibility into cloud costs and managing budgets can create agility and innovation while mitigating the risk of overspending. In addition, adopting a culture of transparency empowers users and developers to keep track of their expenses and adjust their spending as needed. When you know how you're spending your money, you can make informed decisions to allocate resources effectively.

2. Guardrails and Polices that Inhibit Innovation and Productivity

Guardrails are a form of automation that can proactively prevent and remediate issues. They should be well-designed so that engineers can quickly access needed resources. When these guardrails and policies are unclear, companies face challenges documenting processes. As a result, important information becomes siloed.

Scale with ease by identifying guardrails to integrate into your account setup process. Automating policies will streamline operations and protect your employees' time. As your company grows, it's important to standardize configuration settings to manage the expanding IT infrastructure.

3. Using a Single Account to House Many Workloads

Companies that adopt a single-account approach do not take full advantage of the public cloud's benefits. Often, this comes at the expense of the user experience. The limitations of a single-account approach can quickly cause frustration with billing and user access control. Beyond just an inconvenience, this approach also creates the potential for security issues.

A multi-account strategy leverages automation so you can move with agility in a rapidly changing landscape. Use preset guardrails, access roles, budgets, and enforcements to make it quick and frictionless to create new accounts. When you standardize the account setup process, it also becomes easier to keep track of your company's resources.

4. Compliance is a One-Time Event, Not a Continuous Process

Every organization must adhere to various compliance standards related to their industries. Many of these compliance frameworks are complicated and require adherence to strict requirements. In traditional IT, most compliance teams invest a large amount of effort into initially meeting their compliance requirements and then cannot focus on them until they approach their next audit. A lack of headcount, expertise, or large amounts of manual tasks frequently contributes to this phenomenon.

Because of the real-time, evolving nature of the cloud, a continuous approach to compliance is necessary. Teams need properly configured guardrails to prevent violations by users, real-time monitoring and alerts to take action quickly, and automatic remediation of those violations to reduce workload and risk. Deploying tools that automate the monitoring and enforcement of compliance policies reduces the manual tasks and dedicated headcount needed to ensure compliance.

5. Lack of Automation to Enable Standardized Processes

Configuring and managing a public cloud environment is fraught with manual tasks and configurations. Companies are left to do many of these tasks manually without automation to employ standard processes and best practices. Companies stunt their growth and scalability when they rely on individuals to manually perform repetitive tasks.

The lack of automation can expose your company to security threats because manual processes create room for human error. You can set up automation for common tasks within the public cloud, like new account requests and provisioning. This allows for a greater number of account requests to be fulfilled and minimizes human error while still granting native, least-privileged access to needed resources.

When you provide an easy, fast - and secure - way for users to request resources, employees don't need to rely on their efforts and resources or third-party applications to get their job done. This reduces shadow IT and helps prevent security and compliance violations.

Discover Cloud Enablement

Cloud enablement is about taking control of your cloud environment. The cloud should empower companies to unlock secure and rapid development. When governance and management work together, everyone wins. Engineers can access the resources they need to build something great, and business leaders can access data to make confident, informed decisions. With Kion, you can avoid the common cloud pitfalls that jeopardize security and efficiency and unlock a custom cloud solution.

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