We can do it in-house. 3-Point Checklist on why in-house development of cloud labs might hurt

Look around your house and see how many things you’ve bought thinking that you’re going to put it to good use. Are they occupying shelf space now or worse, gathering dust? That nice DSLR camera, those trekking shoes, furry jackets and that large, amazing tent you bought just before your family vacation. All those things might be occupying storage space now and perhaps your children are out growing them too.

Should you have bought them or perhaps rented?  

Build vs buy is a constant debate in the corporate world. Here are three pointers for you to take the right decision when it comes to building the cloud labs in-house vs using managed cloud labs.

What are managed cloud labs?

Managed cloud labs are fully configured labs set up based on the technology configuration you desire, delivered on a browser where you pay per usage, scales infinitely with no additional maintenance of maintenance.

Managed lab providers take care of your cloud-based hands-on labs so that you can focus on your core training requirements. And, you have two choices when it comes to the usage of cloud labs in your organization:

• Build in-house cloud labs
• Get it from third-party cloud lab providers

But are you aware that in-house labs can hurt your business too?

Here are 3 point checklists to know if in-house cloud labs are hurting you:

#1: Process of making

Anything made without a process, or a plan can never achieve its highest level of utility.

Understanding the requirement and creating a cloud lab that serves the exact purpose needs to be set before the team starts developing it. It is a herculean task catering to multiple platforms and technologies to make it end-user friendly.

A couple of questions to ask before developing cloud labs:

• What will the labs be used for? Numerous scenarios- sandbox, training, etc.
• Which technology stack should be used in the labs? Big Data, Java, etc.
• Will the labs be required to integrate with LMS or any other platform?
• Does it need customization based on the team using it?
• For how long does the data need to be stored?

The answers to these questions would differ depending on the use case.

#2: Day-to-day management

In-house resources are also responsible for managing the labs after their development.

“We can do it ourselves,” is something that we hear often. But there’s always more to do in the labs than meets the eye.

A few things that go into creating cloud labs- infrastructure, migration, day-to-day support, and customizable services.

• Storage: The maintenance of the labs in the cloud storage has to be taken closely taken care of – keeping the active ones up and deleting the unused ones. An increase in cloud storage means an increase in bills.
• Susceptible to downtime: In-house labs are susceptible to downtime, but labs by third-party vendors are available 24×7. It does not be overhead at your end – The lab vendor provides support to fix it.
• Scalability: The demand to serve more users increases with the increase in business. Scaling the labs on short notice can be challenging with in-house labs.

Managed cloud lab providers ensure that you do not have to invest your time or resources into something that doesn’t yield the best ROI.

#3: Variety of cloud labs

It’s challenging for an in-house team to cover the variety of labs for different usage and managing it as well. Quite similar to investing in car maintenance but only to use it occasionally.

Not worth it now, is it?

It becomes difficult to keep pace with the rapidly growing requirements and shifting needs. Making the affair all the more costly.

Niche labs are even harder to maintain. But with cloud lab vendors, you get a shorter turnaround time even with niche labs!

There are a wide variety of available labs that can be further customized as per the need. Virtual machines, AWS, GCP, Azure, clusters, mainframes, physical servers – you name it, we have it.

Skim Through a Lab of Your Choice

Bonus: Pricing

With in-house labs, there’s no saying what goes into developing and managing the cloud labs. But it’s simple when it comes to labs provided by vendors.

You only pay for what you use. You focus more on utilizing the maximum potential of the cloud labs. Cloud labs vendor follows a  ‘pay-as-you-go model.’ Here, you will only be charged for what you use.

Like every other thing, even in-house cloud labs have limitations.

Third-party cloud lab vendors have a process to build labs and take end-to-end ownership of the cloud labs. Cloud labs from third-party vendors are easy to use and have a great scalability factor.

And the bonus gives us all the more transparency.

Share this 3 point checklist with your team and see what they think.

But if you have already made your mind, here is where you can contact us.