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- Networking requirements: Some cloud services charge for the bandwidth that is used when transferring data to and from their service. These cost should be clearly listed by the vendor. Some the networking costs associated with cloud service are not so evident.
o Bandwidth - One of the most overlooked impacts of using cloud services has to do with its effect on your network bandwidth. Will your network continue to operate as expected once the cloud service traffic is introduced? Any loss in network performance could severely affect productivity. If network performance is unacceptable, does your department have the necessary expertise, hardware, and funding to upgrade? In addition to local network bandwidth though, there may be issues with how much university bandwidth resources are required. Like the cloud vendors, the university has limits to the amount it can provide without additional resources.
o Redundancy - Contracting external cloud services now makes network availability more important than ever. Your productivity now depends on the network being available to reach your cloud services. Without a network connection, your ability to work is severely hindered. Your department may have to invest in making the network redundant in order to minimize any downtime that could lead to loss in productivity.
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