Top myths about cloud computing

Cloud computing has been a hot topic during the last few years for technology specialists all over the world. Cloud computing has been adopted by many enterprises, but still challenges continue to rise. With all the articles and documentation on this subject, there are many myths that have developed over time. So here are the most common myths regarding cloud computing: security, data loss and performance.

Security is compromised in the cloud

Without a doubt, this is the most talked about point. In order to be a successful service provider, cloud providers have to assure the customers or prospects that their data is secure. The security risks that exist in the cloud are no different than the ones that exist in-house. The greatest advantage when outsourcing to cloud is that providers are permanently focused on improving controls and procedures so that the data is always secure, while enterprises might neglect this focus from time to time. So one could argue that a risk could be to remain in a physical environment. Most cloud computing providers also offer the customer different levels of security protection, which allows for more enhanced security.

You lose control of data in the cloud

This is another common myth. Most people think that they will not be able to access their data whenever they need because they cannot see the actual physical SAN/Drive’s that the data is being stored on. With the Cloud, the technology maintenance and support issues are in the hands of the cloud hosting provider, which means a high level of availability and data.  Data in cloud environments is segmented and encrypted and some providers also allow you to control how your data is stored, which would allow your data to be on a shared storage system or dedicated storage.  I have worked with these types of cloud systems and think that flexibility is the future of cloud management.

Performance is a problem in the cloud

It is easier to add additional resources in a cloud environment and if deployed correctly, those resources can be balance and enable you to achieve a higher level of performance and redundancy. The latest servers built for the cloud, like the Cisco UCS that I’m familiar with run on very high performance blades that most companies do not deploy in a physical environment which has allowed us to achieve much more performance over the same systems in a physical environment.  There could be some refactoring of your db’s and applications to take advantage of the cloud to receive the same benefits we have received above.

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