Sifting
information from knowledge is as crucial as differentiating myths from facts.
Cloud computing, which is fast approaching a mature stage in the market, is an area
where these are often confused. A number of myths surround the concepts or
cloud computing and, often, information is taken as knowledge by a prospective
cloud-seeker. The thumb rules: choose your cloud partner with care, do your
research about what you need and don’t be afraid to ask for information. Let’s
start with some of the myths about the concept and technology of cloud
computing:
1. Cloud is for bigger companies/ Cloud is for smaller firms: Cloud has evened the playing field to a large
extent among companies of different sizes, and its solutions cater to
enterprises of all sizes – macro, medium, micro and even cottage industry. Why,
smaller firms use cloud in the form of mail services such as Gmail and Hotmail,
which are both on cloud! For bigger companies, the host of services – platform
as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service
(IaaS) – offered by a number of cloud companies can offer a number of
solutions. It is up to you to choose the right fit.
2.
Cloud is the ultimate solution:
This may seem like a contradiction of the above point, but it isn’t. Yes, cloud
computing has something to offer every enterprise and usually drives down
operation costs and increases efficiencies and productivity. But it can’t take
over every task that your IT department performs. Armed with proper information
and a reliable cloud computing partner, you have to figure it out on your own –
what can be done on a public cloud, which are the areas that can work better in
a private cloud and what are the data areas that you would rather have on
on-the-ground servers.
3.
Cloud isn’t safe: This one of
the most common myth, nay fear that people have when they consider cloud
computing for their enterprise. But statistics reveal that more data has been
compromised with on-the-ground data centres than even public cloud. In fact,
there have been negligible cases of security breach in both public and private
clouds. And because cloud computing companies, whose core competency is data
management and security, know how crucial it is to keep your data safe, there’s
little reason to believe they will do something that will harm their own
reputation. Most reliable cloud service providers have a number of security
measures for data protection – be it dedicated firewalls, systems to detect any
intrusions, advanced encryption and several security standards. To ensure that
the market trusts them, several cloud companies also engage third-party
security audits.
4. Cloud is cheaper: This is one of the biggest selling points of cloud
computing companies. And while using cloud services costs less than having to
invest in and maintain a corresponding on-ground infrastructure and framework,
long-term use of cloud services slims down that advantage. You also need to
keep in mind that not all cloud computing services are becoming cheaper – SaaS,
for instance, costs the same as it did. Where cloud-based have a significant
edge, however, is that this isn’t just about the money you invest in the
beginning. How it helps money matters is that using cloud computing is more
cost efficient. For instance, you can easily scale-up or scale-down depending
on the magnitude of your operations. This option of increased or decreased use
of storage, infrastructure, software or platform is, perhaps, the biggest
advantage of cloud computing.
5. I don’t need big data: This is a line that is often given to a
cloud-based service provider when he/she makes a sales pitch. But enterprises need
to understand that the sooner they understand the importance of big data and
learn how to use it to maximum advantage, the more competitive it will make
them. With the increase in the volume of data that is being churned out by
enterprises on a daily level, which also needs to be store for future mining,
having easily-accessible storage solutions for this data is important. This is
an area cloud services help immensely; they not only help you store data but
make it accessible to it in real-time, no matter when and where you are.
