Spiralling cloud prices

For the last decade, the transition to the cloud has picked up pace — with many firms removing on-premises systems, attracted by the heralded savings available with the cloud, particularly the public variety. But now many are reviewing their solutions, with cloud costs causing concern, says Nick Hayne, head of professional services at Quiss.

The rising cost of cloud can not all be blamed on the providers’ desire to turn a profit.The dramatic rise in energy prices combined with inflation and wage pressure, havedriven many cloud providers to raise their prices.

Increases seem to be around 10-12% in recent months, despite the slight reduction in some hardware costs. But with no immediate answer, the IT sector must adapt to the current economics of cloud or consider taking the drastic step of returning to on-premises solutions.

Time to consider all the reasons for shifting to the cloud

The situation as it is, requires a more considered response to the question: should we transition to the cloud? If a major reason for making the move to the cloud was cost and this is rising, then greater attention must be paid to the other factors and the ability of specialists to tailor each solution to the unique needs of your firm.

And in recent months, we have witnessed a slow decline in the cost of the traditional storage we use for on-premises systems, which erodes still further the once well-publicised cost-advantage of private or public cloud solutions, despite the integral added value claimed by many providers.

The rising cost of cloud services compared to the reducing cost of hardware has made the decision to pick cloud computing over traditional on-premises solutions more difficult.. The cloud was the obvious choice for many when it was significantly cheaper, but now, not so much.

Higher monthly bills have triggered some cloud migration reversals, also in part due to concerns about security and the loss of control, with many management boards seemingly preferring in-house teams once again, all of which only adds to the cost confusion.

If the cloud is still a preferred solution, the planned migration must be carefully and expertly scoped prior to any decision, recognising just how much work is needed to move on-premises workloads and that the cost-advantage of the cloud’s early days should be less of a factor today.

Legacy or bespoke applications, data, as well as  IT workloads must be assessed carefully with the support of an experienced third-party provider who can advise on the best tailored solution, whilst able to accurately predict costs and the best route to public, private or hybrid cloud.

As a managed service provider experienced in helping law firms transition to the cloud, we are perhaps uniquely placed to advise. And based on the business case considerations, we believe we may see more firms reconsider on-premises systems than expected, but if it returns value to the business, then it’s fine with us.