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BC
September 30, 2025The cost myth persists because most small businesses haven’t performed a true TCO analysis of their current infrastructure. I’ve managed both on-premises and cloud setups—hidden costs in on-premises options like power, cooling, backup hardware, and the time spent dealing with failures accumulate faster than monthly cloud bills. However, the “savings aren’t automatic” disclaimer is essential. I’ve seen many deployments where unmanaged cloud sprawl costs more than maintaining physical servers, often due to over-provisioned instances that nobody remembered to downscale.
The security argument is generally correct but oversimplifies the threat landscape.
Yes, cloud providers typically offer better perimeter security than most small businesses can afford. But the real risk lies in access management—weak passwords, lack of MFA, overly permissive sharing links. Cloud doesn’t fix organizational security culture; it just shifts where failures can happen. The mention of “shared responsibility’ is crucial—cloud providers secure the infrastructure, but you’re still responsible for actions like emailing credentials or clicking on phishing links.
Migration complexity entirely depends on what you’re moving. Simple file storage and SaaS applications? Very straightforward. Legacy line-of-business software with unusual database dependencies? That’s where claims of “days not weeks’ start to fall apart. I’ve seen migrations stall for months over single applications that weren’t properly documented, especially when the original vendor went out of business. The emphasis on ‘the right partner’ adds significant value in that context.
The claim that “you don’t need tech people’ is the most dangerous myth in this article. Cloud platforms are easier to operate than managing physical servers, but this ease can create a false sense of expertise. It’s remarkably easy to misconfigure S3 buckets, IAM policies, or backup retention settings—mistakes that seem minor until data is lost or a breach occurs. The idea of most small businesses just using self-service portals often obscures the fact that they, in fact, need guidance, not just DIY solutions.