Oracle in the Cloud: Perceived Risks Vs. Reality
Mark Vivian
IT Services Leader focused on helping customers deliver real business value from their investment in technology
Increasing numbers of organisations are moving their business critical applications to the Cloud, lured by the promise of lower operating costs and increased efficiency, among other things. Why is it, though, that the Oracle community seems to be lagging behind the world at large, despite those oft-mentioned benefits?
The short answer is risk. Claremont’s recent survey of the Oracle community revealed that, although some bold CIOs have led the way and proven the value of migrating to the Cloud, many still consider that to be a journey fraught with danger.
“The Cloud is now mature enough - and crucially, secure enough - to host business critical applications. The time is right for the Oracle community to take advantage of the efficiencies and cost savings on offer - and migrate en masse to the cloud.”
Jonathan Stuart, Managed Services Director, Claremont
Data security, financial cost and integration challenges – among other factors – are all cited by organisations to be risks that have, up to now, precluded their migration to the Cloud. Caution when considering a significant move like this is understandable but are these fears warranted? Or are they overstated, based on outdated worries formed when the Cloud was young and security was still a real concern?
Claremont’s recent survey on The Future of Oracle-based Applications attempted to get to the heart of the matter. It asked the Oracle community: how many of these ‘risks’ on data security, financial cost or integration had actually been realised in practice by organisations who have already moved to the Cloud?
Data security
Data security is clearly the foremost concern in the minds of those who have yet to move to the Cloud. Of these organisations, 69% believe that data security is a high risk associated with such a move. However, only 12% of organisations who have already migrated to the Cloud reported any data security issues in practice. This is low - incredibly low - but organisations can be proactive in ensuring their data security is maintained by working with an implementation partner who can guarantee security, through UK data centres and UK-based service managers. This is key for data security and ensures compliance with Data Sovereignty legislation. Reassuringly, though, it’s true to say that data security has been such a hot topic for so long in the Cloud debate that implementation partners are hyper-vigilant when it comes to ensuring that data is kept safe.
"During recent penetration testing, Claremont was the only supplier to detect and prevent the attempted hacking of a system they host. This clearly demonstrates Claremont’s proactive approach and is why we have absolute confidence in their ability to host and protect ourOracle systems."
Glen Yarwood, IT Operations Director, National Trust
Integration difficulties
Worries about how a Cloud-based solution will integrate with an existing on-premise system are not as prevalent but are nonetheless significant. 59% of organisations believe that integration will be too difficult, whereas 38% of existing Cloud users faced these issues in practice. The actual risk is over 20% less than that perceived by organisations but there is no doubt that Cloud migration is a complex process. It is therefore crucial to work with an experienced implementation partner to ensure a smooth journey into the Cloud.
Financial Cost
The financial costs associated with a move to the Cloud are two-fold: one-off switching costs and continuing operating costs. In the Claremont survey, 41% of organisations who have not yet moved to Cloud consider the financial cost of switching to be a barrier to migration. However, while the financial cost of switching has been a problem for some who have already migrated (38%), the resulting reduction in operating costs has proven to be a major advantage for 75% of organisations. Taking a wider view, the long-term financial savings to be made by migrating business critical applications to the Cloud more than compensate for the up-front costs of making the move.
“At Domino we are looking to continue our journey into the Cloud… Our next step is to work with Claremont to assess the Cloud readiness of our Oracle-based applications"
Paul Toates, Systems Architect, Domino Printing Services.
Conclusions
The data from the Claremont survey shows there is a large discrepancy between the perceived risks of moving to the Cloud and the real-world experience of organisations who have already made that journey. As an increasing number of organisations move their business critical Oracle-based applications to the Cloud - enjoying benefits that markedly outweigh any real dangers - perhaps the biggest risk of all is that of being left behind while competitors reap the rewards.
Survey Data
The figures in this article form part of the Research Survey Report: The Future of Oracle-based Applications, produced and created by Claremont. For further information on the detailed findings of this survey please contact info@claremont.com
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Fusion Technical Lead
8 年I recently attended a presentation from the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), who ran through a similar but broader (in terms of technology) survey and found some interesting conclusions. For instance, most companies who had moved to the Cloud had noted cost savings, possibly in the area of IT staff. Although not a key driver for moving to the Cloud, this does at least counter one concern about cost. Presumably, the costs have not been measured over 5 years yet, with ongoing subscription costs being higher than traditional product support, so maybe the jury is still out. Another concern noted was not so much Data Security as Data Sovereignty; the worry that data held in the US might become visible to the US Government (lots of scaremongering there). Opening up European data centres seems to be the blunt way of addressing this. Finally we had a long discussion about why the perception of data security risk had increased over the last 2 years. Highly publicised data breaches at Sony Playstation, Talktalk, MOD and others were cited, but of course most breaches occur with on premise applications (or via USB sticks!), so the concern should be reducing for Cloud applications which will always have far greater levels of security than on premise, due to the economies of scale and the massive commercial risk for cloud suppliers if they have a security breach.