You would expect something “fake” to take the form of goods such as clothing, watches, or handbags, but not so much with technology. Unfortunately for small-business owners, there is such a thing as fake technology. Case in point: cloud solutions.

The struggle to compete in a cloud-driven world is intense and many service providers are moving their clients’ on-premises software to a simple datacenter and calling it a cloud solution. Others advertise their services using cloud terminology, such as flexibility, auto provisioning, and pay-per-use pricing, in order to paint pictures of puffy clouds in their clients’ minds.

What you need to know is there are real differences between solutions born in the cloud and others forced into it like square pegs in round holes. Here are four cloud spotting techniques so you know which solutions are fakes and can avoid the cloud-washing phenomenon.

Difficult to use

One of the easiest ways to sniff out fake clouds is to look for multiple admin consoles, inconvenient non-browser access, and complex maintenance of features and functionality. These so-called “cloud solutions” often make users jump through hoops to complete tasks, especially when it comes to updating security settings, creating reports, building financial plans, and fine-tuning the application.

True cloud solutions are user-friendly and flexible, and here’s a protip for you: When in doubt, ask for a free trial, in which case real cloud solutions providers will be happy to demonstrate the features they have in mind for your business, and you should be able to use the application with a minimal learning curve.

Updates are rarely released

As mentioned earlier, fake clouds are often simply on-premises software moved to a data center or some other off-site hosting facility. This means it can take years before any substantial updates are rolled out, just like most on-premises solutions. And when they’re finally available, your provider will likely have to install them manually and separately for each client, which takes even longer.

Real cloud solutions feature automatic updates that will ensure you’re always up to date with the latest releases and functionalities.

Customization is tedious and unstable

Old legacy solutions disguised as cloud solutions aren’t designed to run as a service. Because of that, they require manual patches, fixes, and maintenance, and often rely on multiple computing instances in order to run as seamlessly as possible.

Inevitably, this tedious sort of upkeep will take its toll on your provider and will manifest itself when you request customizations or optimizations and your provider stumbles their way through them in a piecemeal fashion. Your “cloud” may even break during an upgrade because unlike actual cloud solutions, fake clouds simply weren’t designed for seamless on-demand upgrades.

Real cloud solutions also allow streamlined integration with your current applications and other cloud solutions, with zero compromise to stability. So if upgrades and integrations on your cloud platform result in downtime and ongoing instability, chances are you’re using a fake.

Innovation is slow or non-existent

Fake cloud providers innovate much slower than true cloud providers. This is because all their clients’ applications will likely run on different versions and platforms, leading to a matrix of complexity that misappropriates resources and hampers innovation.

True cloud providers will run all their clients’ applications on one secure platform and codebase which makes it easy for their R&D team to focus on improving the performance of all your apps and your overall user experience.

SimplyClouds clients never have to endure painful upgrades or glitchy solutions. Our cloud offerings provide easy access to powerful tools that are effortless to use. They can be integrated with both cloud and on-premises solutions, and we have a superior service level agreement to ensure total peace of mind. If you have any questions, we’re happy to advise.