4 Drawbacks to Cloud Storage Applications

More and more businesses are turning to the cloud with an estimated 81% using at least one cloud application. With reduced IT costs, ease of connectivity, and automatic backups, cloud applications just make sense when it comes to improving your user experience and making businesses more efficient. With that efficiency, however, can come some drawbacks in using cloud storage apps.

1. Server Downtime

There’s no other way to put it: cloud apps require the internet. If a user finds themselves without an internet connection due to an outage, scheduled maintenance, or the local café being bogged down by too many users, everything in the cloud becomes inaccessible. Needless to say, that puts an immediate halt on all work.

While some cloud-based apps offer the ability to download files from the cloud onto your hard drive, they don’t always work as smoothly as promised and can lead to time-consuming troubleshooting. Not only can this be a frustrating experience for a user, but it also means more IT work orders trying to figure out why the cloud app won’t just work.

2. Another Folder (Or Three)

The addition of a cloud storage application usually comes along with another folder to maintain. If that’s Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, or many of the other options available, a user will have to add folders, switch files around, and keep everything organized.

Though some applications act like a network drive, they still require migration of files onto the new system. And if you add in another? It makes the need for cross-platform organization exponential. Users should be focused on the work itself, not checking to make sure the right version of the right file is in the right storage app.

3. Cost Of Apps

As businesses grow, departments can begin to branch off in their chosen software. Human Resources might be on one, the sales department could be using another, and IT would wish they would all use the same. Each additional service means an additional cost for the business.

While it would make the most sense to standardize a company’s cloud storage app, when successful businesses are expanding at a rapid rate, sometimes there just isn’t enough time to do so. And quick band aids for storage solutions come with a price.

4. App Management

The addition of multiple cloud storage apps also means more work for the IT team. In addition to the necessary training for these configurations, IT will have an exponential amount of work orders for users trying to figure out their new software.

With more applications to manage, the IT team will have less and less time to roll out the projects that can help the business. Instead, they’ll be playing catch up and spending time dealing with work orders. In a growing business, time needs to be as efficient as possible. Every minute spent managing a cloud storage app could be spent elsewhere.

An Alternative to Cloud Storage Apps

While cloud storage applications are growing in popularity every year, they aren’t the only solution to your small and medium-sized business. Fortunately, Network Attached Storage (NAS) has moved to the cloud as well. Instead of a traditional NAS which requires hardware on the premises of the business, a Cloud NAS allows users from multiple locations to access files from anywhere.

As mentioned earlier, access to internet will be required, but with multi-cloud redundancy, there’s almost no chance the data would be locked on account of the cloud provider. And with a Morro CacheDrive as offered by Morro Data’s Cloud NAS service, all files can be stored locally and remotely.

Cloud NAS not only simplifies the cloud experience by not requiring an additional interface for users, but simplifies the backend too. The IT team won’t be spending hours trying to figure out why files aren’t syncing properly, managing different app configurations, or determining how to navigate the cluttered file system. Cloud NAS offers the same benefits as cloud storage applications, but without the drawbacks.