Cloud computing can be a great solution for companies looking to ease the burdens on their internal infrastructure or to add a little extra capacity when necessary. But the cloud can also come with control issues that may make you question whether or not it was worth it to invest in the technology. Dave Bartoletti, senior analyst with Forrester Research (www.forrester.com), says the private cloud isn’t as big of an offender because the “ownership still stays within your four walls.” But the public cloud, in particular, he says, is susceptible to loss of control because “if you’re doing something in a public cloud sphere and starting out there, it’s a fundamental shift in how you’ve done business.”
Bartoletti says enterprises will experiment with the cloud using SaaS (software as a service) solutions, but the simple fact that SaaS involves off-site computing can cause companies to feel a loss of control almost immediately. Cloud computing also brings security issues to the forefront, because businesses may feel like they are “losing control of ownership of the data,” says Bartoletti, while the IT team may feel as though they are “losing control over how technology decisions are made in general.”