The top 6 misconceptions about cloud computing

Cloud services have been around for a while now. Generally, both adoption and understanding of them is on the up but there are still many cloud computing myths out there that need to be dispelled.

1. The cloud isn't secure

Security has been brought into question in the past because there is an understandable psychological shift from owning your own IT to operating on shared, multi-tenant clouds - but these fears were often unfounded. As understanding of different cloud offerings has grown, organisations have come to realise that data is often as secure in a public cloud as it would be in their own "private cloud".

Additionally, data can be encrypted in transit and at rest, so as long as encryption keys are properly managed your data remains perfectly secure.

2. It's only for the enterprise

Maybe in the past this was true. The cost of cloud backup, disaster recovery and infrastructure services has traditionally been a prohibiting factor for a lot of smaller organisations, but the costs have fallen substantially in the last few years. Cloud services utilise huge economies of scale that allow them to be delivered through very flexible pricing models - this makes them accessible to businesses of all sizes.

3. It's only for the SME

These myths aren't mutually exclusive. There is a school of thought that says "if you start a business today, you would use all cloud services, but they aren't suitable for the enterprise".  Larger organisations will certainly have a longer set of requirements for a solution, and they will have existing IT investments that they need to see through so the time for adoption might be slightly longer but there are plenty of cloud services designed specifically for the needs of the enterprise.

4. Cloud computing = job losses

There has been a lot of talk about the adoption of cloud computing directly contributing to redundancies within the IT team, but there is evidence both for and against the idea.

From our experience, cloud computing has actually been responsible for very few job losses – 75% of companies in our recent Data Health Check reported no losses at all from 2012-2013. Cloud services allow you to outsource the additional management of certain processes to CSP, and get the time back to concentrate on your actual job. It is certainly our experience that the majority of IT teams are stretched as more and more demands are put on them.  Very few are looking at cloud services with an eye on reducing the size of the team – they are looking to find ways to be more efficient and give themselves the ability to do more.  Really the only person that loses out is the hardware salesman.

5. You have to use the same provider for everything

Often customers do use one provider for all of their services; generally to keep management and communication processes as simple as possible. But you should consider the risks in using the same CSP for your DR as your production system. If that provider experiences issues, for example, what impact would that have on your business and your ability to backup and recover? While there are still some complexities in using multiple CSPs, ultimately it does allow you to reduce risk.

Additionally, you might have a need for general IT infrastructure (IaaS) but there will certainly be particular applications that are delivered as a cloud service (SaaS) that will be the best option for particular needs or departments.  The challenge is no longer on-premise vs cloud service, quite often the choice now may be on-premise vs one of many cloud services.

6. It's a fad

To be honest, this myth is probably already on its way out. With over 64% of UK businesses currently using at least one cloud-based service, most people are coming to terms with the fact that cloud computing is here to stay. We are of the opinion that "cloud" as a term will probably disappear altogether within 3-5 years – public, private, hybrid, it's all becoming quite meaningless. While the terminology might change, the technologies are set to keep evolving at an impressive pace.