Cloud Rendering is a technology model that provides on-demand access to shared computing resources, such as servers, storage, and applications, over the internet. It seems attractive to many customers because of its flexibility, and apparent cost-effectiveness, as there is no need for a significant upfront hardware investment. However, Cloud Rendering also comes with a lot of potential challenges and hidden traps that make it an inefficient solution.
Data Insecurity
A major concern associated with Cloud Rendering is data security and privacy. In a study conducted by Ermetic about the State of Cloud Security, the results reported that nearly 98% of companies using Cloud Rendering services experienced at least one data breach from 2020 to 2022. These data breaches included downtimes because of internet outages, data leakage or loss, intellectual property theft and contract violations. Further emphasizing the drawback of this, this ultimately is one of multiple explanations for the rise of unexpected costs, as this links with a limited amount of control and flexibility to switch Cloud Rendering operators.
Cost inefficiency
This inability to easily switch operators stems from vendor lock-ins that make data transfers costly, especially for larger volumes of data. As also outlined by TechTarget, there are several unexpected money traps associated with Cloud Rendering that can make it deceptively expensive. Other quickly accumulating costs such as access fees, increasing transactional costs, additional staffing needs, and decommissioning costs can all add up, making Cloud Rendering less cost-efficient than it may initially appear.
WebGL: a promising Alternative
Ultimately, this debate brings us to the technology of WebGL, which represents a more sustainable alternative to Cloud Rendering. As discussed in a recent Forbes article, WebGL enables more accessible and immersive experiences for users, with no pricey gaming hardware or downloads. This provides businesses and developers with a more flexible and cost-effective option to reach a wide audience without specialized technical expertise or a large budget.
Because of the complexity of cloud pricing models, you can also look at cost calculators to directly compare the average charge differences between WebGL and Cloud Rendering.