Despite widespread popularity of cloud computing, customers still have stubborn concerns and objections. While cloud isn’t for everyone, it’s important to understand what exactly is holding these businesses back from making the move because they might just have inaccurate perceptions.
In general, we find the core issue to be a lack of full understanding of the cloud – and this often leads to fear of the unknown. Objecting customers tend to have outdated perceptions of the technology and think it will negatively impact their company.
So how can a sales partner respond to these objections from customers? First and foremost, always focus on education. Make sure the customer has the facts, and then they can make a truly educated decision.
Let’s take a look at some common cloud objections and how you, as a sales partner, can respond.
Objection: Cloud services are expensive. After a year or so, I can just buy my own hardware and manage it myself.
Rebuttal: Purchasing and maintaining infrastructure has its own ongoing expenses, from service agreements to warranties to the labor required to complete updates. Think about who is managing that hardware. Is it a full-time employee, or a managed service provider? And what about the on-premises costs and risks of hosting your own infrastructure, including power and Internet redundancy, physical security and HVAC expenses? These things add up, especially when you have to refresh hardware every 3-4 years.
With cloud computing, you’re really receiving long-term cost benefits because you end up saving on major capital costs, management and labor, upgrades and more. Just take a look at this comparison between internal IT, managed services, and cloud services over three years – it includes the costs of infrastructure for two application servers, two database servers, and a load balancer.
And on top of the inherent long-term savings, RapidScale is a managed cloud provider, meaning you can get full management and support for your cloud solutions so you don’t have to worry about any of it! That saves you money, along with resources, time, and energy.
Objection: I need my data secure, and I have no way of knowing if it’s secure in the cloud.
Sales Partner Rebuttal: There are always security risks when your business is connected to the Internet. This is true for on-premises and cloud environments alike. However, cloud security is better than it’s ever been, and it will just keep improving. It’s inaccurate to think that because anyone can access the Internet, anyone can access your business data if it’s in the cloud. That’s not how it works. In fact, 64% of enterprises agree that cloud infrastructure is more secure than older legacy systems.
Sure, some high-profile data breaches make it easy to have a negative perception of cloud security – but did you know that many of these situations were actually results of vulnerabilities that were not the provider’s fault? Here are a few examples:
- The Target breach that occurred a couple years ago was caused by hackers stealing a third party’s login credentials. This third party had been given access to Target’s network.
- A similar Home Depot incident was almost identical, with hackers stealing a vendor’s login to access the network and use malware to sidestep the antivirus software.
- Even the Apple iCloud hack indirectly occurred when hackers accessed celebrity accounts using brute force and phishing. (Tripwire, Inc.)
Industry expert, David Linthicum, makes a great comparison: “Using the cloud is like putting your money in the bank versus under your mattress. Even though your money, or data, is not on-premises, the bank will do a much better job protecting it because it has vaults and security cameras, more than what a single enterprise company can do.”
It’s important to keep in mind that, while we refer to your data as being “in the cloud,” it’s still stored in a physical data center, on physical equipment – this side is simply managed by RapidScale. Additionally, these facilities are equipped with enterprise-grade physical and network security. Providers like RapidScale absolutely have to invest heavily in security if they are going to hold sensitive customer data on their servers – so that’s what they do. The RapidScale cloud products are highly resistant to attack and are actually more secure than traditional in-house setups, with contingency plans should any unexpected situation occur. And it’s also important for customers to do their part towards security on their end too, especially when it comes to educating users on best practices.
Objection: We have really strict compliance regulations. The cloud just won’t cut it.
Sales Partner Rebuttal: Compliance preparedness depends on the provider of course, but RapidScale has taken the steps to help customers meet compliance needs. Again, this is a two-way street. RapidScale ensures that the underlying infrastructure meets compliance regulations, but the customer also has to do their part to ensure their processes and operations meet the standards too.
Objection: Why wouldn’t I just go to the big cloud players, like Amazon or Microsoft?
Rebuttal: RapidScale cloud solutions and solutions of the big players are just different offerings. Businesses need to decide if they want to work with a huge cloud player with minimal management and support options, or with a managed cloud provider that can be there every step of the way. Customers that appreciate guidance, management and support simply won’t find what they need with Amazon or Microsoft. These cloud providers are unable to share the same attention that RapidScale gives to all its clients.
You just need to know what your priorities are. Do you want a cloud environment over which you have full control, with minimal support from your provider? Or do you want a fully managed cloud solution that allows you to focus on your core business while benefiting from support and guidance? These preferences will help make it clear which cloud solution is best for you.
For more resources and support to help you close those deals, don’t forget to visit the RapidScale Partner Portal! Don’t have credentials? Contact our Marketing Team.
