Numerous small businesses have discovered that cloud services fall short of their promises. Although cloud vendors promote their advantages, these businesses face instability and unanticipated high expenses. In many instances, the costs exceed 10 times the total ownership costs associated with traditional software. Furthermore, significant hidden costs can restrict a small business’s control and stability.
For example, vendor lock-in and data privacy and security concerns can hinder your ability to adapt to market fluctuations, especially during difficult economic periods. The imposition of high monthly fees, arbitrary service and feature changes, frequent web administrative changes, impersonal support, and persistent billing processing issues often result in significant business interruptions and one-sided unfair service terminations. It is crucial to take these factors into account when evaluating cloud services.
To minimize costs and enhance business process control over your business, consider the following 3-layered approach in building your IT infrastructure:
Embrace Open-Source Licenses: First and foremost, when establishing your most bottom foundational infrastructure layer, give priority to open-source hardware and software solutions to maximize their advantages. For example, consider open-source and multivendor hardware, Pfsense routers, OpenVPN for home clients, WireGuard for overlay server VPN, NextCloud for file sharing, Jitsi for video conferencing, Asterisk for voice processing, Zimbra for mail servers, XMPP for secure internal messaging, and LibreOffice for automating business processes. The open-source domain offers a wide range of options, with thousands of alternatives available. These selections provide stability, adaptability, transparency, and cost efficiency, enabling you to create a robust foundation without incurring substantial recurring license expenses.
Acquire Perpetual Commercial Licenses: If you cannot identify a suitable open-source alternative, consider adopting perpetual licenses for software and hardware instead of relying on subscription-based rental models to build the next layer of your business infrastructure. Perpetual licenses grant long-term ownership and substantially lower recurring costs. For instance, retail or volume licenses for Microsoft Office, such as MS Office perpetual licenses, should be explored to meet your needs.
Rent subscription-based Commercial Licenses as a last resort: If the first two options are not satisfactory, consider a temporary solution: renting a limited number of subscription licenses. In the meantime, investigate open-source alternatives for a long-term fit. If cloud services become necessary, focus on providers with fair terms of service. Seek out vendors that facilitate smooth platform migrations to adapt to your changing needs while adhering to the providers’ ever-evolving terms of service and government rules. Always plan to transition from the rental and own your own infrastructure in the long run.
Exercise caution when employing cloud services! Bear in mind that fundamental decisions can greatly influence your business’s lasting stability and sustainability. If you are unhappy with your cloud vendors, contact us for an audit of your IT infrastructure, and we will recommend how to re-balance and to re-establish stability while reduce costs significantly.🌟
