Major Cloud Computing Challenges to face in 2022

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the New Privacy Rules are a few of the major challenges ahead for cloud computing.

 Are you ready to face this next wave of cloud-related changes?

Cloud Computing is here to stay. There is no doubt about that, but with it comes some major challenges for employees, organizations, vendors and other entities trying to leverage its benefits. 

Some of these challenges include the GDPR – new privacy rules which must be adhered to when collecting personal data from EU citizens – and more importantly employee performance decreases due as people start realizing their data is not safe in the hands of IT departments.

What is a challenge for cloud computing that could cause employee performance to decrease?

An employee who is not sure about the security of his or her personal data stored in the cloud, will most likely have a negative impact on their morale and attitude towards work.

 Furthermore, companies that cannot provide a solution to keep personal data safe, might see a high turnover rate of their employees in particular when hiring new employees as they will have much weaker trust in the company’s ability to keep their personal data secure.

In this article, we will examine the top five major challenges for cloud computing in the near future.

 It is important to note that each of these would require different approaches from enterprises, IT departments and channel partners to overcome. 

The six highlighted challenges are:

1. GDPR Compliance: 

The next wave of privacy regulations with data protection for EU citizens – including a movement to cause organizations to encrypt all customer data on premises or in the cloud – has struck fear into people within and outside of the EU. 

According to recent research, more than one in four European consumers have taken their business elsewhere because they feel they do not get enough personal information protection when using cloud services. 

The fear is that businesses are more concerned about the immediate bottom line than their customers’ privacy.

2. The Rise of The Multi-Cloud: 

Customers are trying to avoid vendor lock-in by using a multi-cloud strategy – using cloud services from multiple vendors (even competitors) in order to gain flexibility, agility and avoid vendor lock-in. 

This has become an even bigger problem for IT departments, who now have greater responsibility to manage user data across different cloud providers and thus ensure seamless collaboration between the users. 

This can be challenging for enterprises as well due to budget constraints, security risks and ensuring one common standard across all clouds.

3. The Need for Speed: 

The growing popularity of big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence has led to the need for more power and speed in the cloud environment.

 Users are trying to accelerate the processing of big data using advanced computing technologies like machine learning that can be used to increase work productivity. 

The ability to use these technologies will lead to customers wanting faster response times and higher performance.

 Enterprises have a lot of concerns about security when it comes to using advanced accelerators like machine learning, thus they must ensure they have a secure infrastructure for their users in order for them to trust their data will not be leaked or stolen by the cloud provider.

4. The Rise of Mobile:

Cloud services have become truly mobile, with users requiring access to company assets on the go. 

This has posed a challenge for enterprises as they must ensure their technology can seamlessly adapt to multiple types of devices and operating systems, especially for mobile users. 

Smartphones are now more important than ever for business applications and virtual desktop access, with smartphones being used more frequently than PCs as a way to get work done. 

Enterprises need to develop applications that can safely embed into the native device operating system without exposing sensitive data, which is likely where data leakage from enterprise servers will occur in the near future.

5. The Need for Security:

Data breaches are commonplace, whether they come from hackers or accidental service outages. especially during Tenant to Tenant Office 365 Migration and Dropbox to SharePoint Migration etc. 

The need for more security is a key concern, with organizations looking to protect against unauthorized access and abuse. 

Although most cloud vendors have implemented some level of encryption technology in their infrastructure, there is always a need to check if the data is truly secure. 

Currently many customers are not encrypting their data before uploading it to public cloud infrastructures which can put their assets at risk of being stolen by malicious third-parties.