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Cloud Computing Integration Challenges and Solutions

I have been a long-term supporter of what the cloud can do for your business, but I did not hold back from presenting what issues need to be overcome when performing a cloud computing implementation. Today, I would like to discuss the challenges of cloud computing integrations.

Often referred to as the ‘ugly part” of cloud computing, integration plays a crucial role if you want to deliver cloud-based solutions to your business. Outlining a cloud strategy could be a time-consuming and difficult process, but the planning part must also take into account the fact that the on–premises resources and infrastructure a company has must be coordinated with the applications to be hosted in the cloud.

Five areas can pose challenges when it comes to cloud computing integration: backup, storage, network, security, and management. However, the information on the subject is quite scarce because many cloud implementations had an experimental character, and people solved issues as they arose. A set of standards or best practices is yet to be put in place.

So, how do you get the data from in-house to the cloud, keeping in mind security and other data migration standards? There are automatic tools to help with your data migration between in-house and cloud applications.

You must also think about how you will coordinate upgrades: if the data or, most important, the infrastructure on premise changes, then the interfaces in the cloud might need to be adapted in order for these systems to communicate.

If you do not want to hire the services of a company specialized in this type of integration, but you also do not want to be caught unprepared, the solution to deal with possible integration issues is to carefully plan in advance both the migration and the implementation.

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