Additionally cloud is easy to use, budget-friendly, many features are offered as freebies, doesn’t need any unique resources, and payment is a usage basis which helps to invest more as and when required.

Whether it is a software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), or other managed service, with the cloud you get a wide range of the cloud-based services for your different business needs. The subscription based fee structure of cloud further makes it more affordable for startups than the traditional IT solutions with high upfront CAPEX costs.

The key cloud service providers AWS, G-Cloud and Microsoft Azure have designed customized cloud programs to meet the requirements of startups at each stage. Stages of the startup tech companies can be categorized as early, minimum viable product (MVP) level, launch and blitz scaling one. If your startup falls under an early stage, you can use AWS Activate at this stage program to avail the cloud services at a reasonable rate. For more mature startups, incubators and providers, AWS has designed Activate Portfolio. Startups can use these ready and easy to use customized cloud programs and save big.

Most of the cloud providers offer a set of services and technologies which can help start-ups secure their data as it is located on reliable servers that make regular backups. With cloud-based backups, companies do not need to worry about losing data stored in remote locations.

Cloud computing is sustainable, which can help start-ups to gain new customers and retain the old.

Cloud enables startups to compete with well-established players with access to the expertise and resources offered by cloud vendors. Additionally, 24/7 managed support is provided. Startups now have access to a wide range of software and hardware, which was not possible earlier in the traditional IT environment.

Many startups deploy apps or solutions without evaluating their cloud need, without discussing them with other departments and make the wrong decision of directly adopting the cloud. This results in non-optimized cloud benefits.

What to do

Always start with assessing what your business actually needs, and devise a cloud strategy in-line with your performance targets. Gartner states, “a right cloud strategy is a central role that the cloud plays in an organization”.  Always involve all departments of your company when creating a cloud strategy for better decision-making. Have an exit plan for the situation when things go out of control or budget.

Before moving to the cloud, startups must first consider deciding which provider to partner with and check which cloud suits their business needs best. Not doing your research correctly is the other common mistake due to which startups end up paying more on the features they do not need or use.

Deciding the right cloud partner is important as cloud infrastructure is tailor-made for every business’ individual needs by cloud providers. The trouble starts when vendor’s payment model is complicated and offer rigid, non scalable platform.

What to do

• Do your business requirements evaluation before selecting a cloud service provider. You can have experts’ opinions if you don’t have the required expertise or consider outsourcing it to a professional.
• A right cloud service provider helps you analyze your unique requirements and provide recommendations before starting the service. Select cloud providers based on your business goals and needs, not trends and popularity. Give a try to different cloud vendors and before finalizing one of them always use their free trial programs.
• Estimate your upfront cloud transition expenses with Microsoft, Google and Amazon pricing calculators.

Overall the following factors can help you choose the best cloud provider in-line with your business needs:
• Evaluate business requirements
• Know storage and computing requirements
• Identify users and devices count
•Estimate the budget

Businesses rush to the cloud in an unplanned manner and then complain about slow transition and cost wastage than estimation. You may have complex, huge applications running on millions of code; moving all of the application components simultaneously to the cloud will only lead to poor performance and maintenance issues.

What to do

Move your applications to the cloud in stages. Follow a step-by-step migration approach.

The cloud could go down sometimes, just like the traditional IT infrastructure. Consider implementing the famous saying in the cloud community, “Design for failure and nothing will fail”.

What to do

Execute the cloud-optimized failure-tolerant cloud architecture and ensure to opt for a cloud service provider who offers a reliable data recovery system.

$1.52M was lost in data breaches in 2020 which was $1.42M in 2019. Data breaches are costly and can kill business scalability. Most of the startups struggle to execute security protocols. Startups must establish a security-first approach when migrating their workflow to the cloud.

What to do

Ensure that your startup is following all the cloud security practices. In addition, verify if your cloud service provider is following the compliance laws apart from the security measures they provide.