CHALLENGES AND RISKS IN COMPANIES’ TRANSITION TO CLOUD COMPUTING

Abstract

Cloud computing has already proven itself to be the more profitable economic model of access to IT products, solutions and services online via the Internet for enterprises of different sizes and it also promises to become a serious competitive advantage. The article deals with the most important benefits and challenges of cloud computing, as well as with the risks of the cloud (loss of control over data, security and safety of data in the cloud, lack of standardization, application compatibility and IT infrastructure coordination and transparency). Special attention is paid to some practical issues of the transition to this new business model for providing IT services. The author proposes a specific methodology for a company’s migration to cloud services, which comprises several steps: 1. Investigating and analyzing the main reasons which can motivate migration to the cloud; 2. Analyzing and modelling the business processes in an organization; 3. Planning the transition. Selecting one or more applications that are non-critical for businesses, which are to be oriented to the new ideology; 4. Analyzing the risks and benefits of cloud computing; 5. Implementing the virtualization and cloud computing project; 6. Analyzing the outcomes and planning the next services for the shift to the cloud.