Bringing Those Services Back Home

Do you have services running in the cloud? Sure, almost everyone does nowadays. Sometimes it even makes sense. One example is for your "second backup" where you have your critical data backed up on-site and to a cloud service for your off-site backup so a disaster can't wipe all of them out in one swipe.

However, the industry trend to put everything (except maybe for the kitchen sink... but time will tell!) into the cloud is deeply concerning. As a Value Added Reseller for many hardware and software products, I get this marketing all the time from my vendors and distributors. Several times a year, I see products that used to be a one-time purchase turned into a subscription. The "current" of that "river" is very strong because their accounting people love that recurring subscription revenue.

However, what's best for the vendors is not always what's best for my clients. So I often swim upstream. It's a challenge, but it's also very rewarding! Because what's good for my clients is what's good for us as a business. Up here, people seem to get the importance of truly owning their infrastructure more than in other places. But the discontinuing of established products in favor of subscription services and their continual marketing can take its toll.

So I want to tell the other side of the story. A couple of weeks ago, a client contacted me about their security camera system. Like many other cloud services, the ability to view their cameras stopped working because the vendor discontinued that cloud service.

The client had put a lot of money into that camera system, but because of a decision made by some C-level person far away, they were no longer able to view their camera footage. This actually happens pretty frequently these days, where cloud services stop making financial sense for the vendor so they are discontinued. But what about what makes financial sense for the customers? The investment and data of the subscribers are sacrificed.

What happened? I was able to salvage my client's investment by disconnecting it from the cloud and re-configuring the cameras and the digital recorder to instead function through a direct network connection. Now they can continue to use their equipment they purchased into the future as long as it makes sense for them to do that.

So many times people feel like there is no choice. But there is always a choice, and there are alternatives out there. Don't be bullied into renting when you want to own. Don't be bullied into giving up your control and housing your private data with a company that just wants to mine and sell it- until it's no longer profitable for them to do so. Let us help you bring those services back home. Give us a call, we would love to help!