False Assumptions About Cloud Computing

5 False Assumptions Every CTO Should Know About Cloud Computing

No doubt, Cloud Computing has brought benefits to the IT industry with its awesome innovations.

Cloud adoption is transforming markets and industries every single day. As both small and large firms increase their knowledge of basic cloud computing services, many are migrating to the public cloud to house more complex and flexible business applications.

Some companies have already advanced when it comes cloud computing, while others are just beginning to take their first steps. IT experts predict that come the year 2020, the cloud would be the only reliable computing solution for most IT companies. Not only that, but the global computing market would have grown from the present US$35bn to approximately US$150bn.

While the global computing market keeps growing, there are still some widespread misleading views based on misinformation about the cloud. And no CTO (being the backbone of their company’s IT solutions) should be ignorant about these matters.

Since the benefits of a cloud-oriented CTO in an organisation cannot be underrated, I therefore bring to you, five false assumptions every CTO should know about cloud computing:

#1. The Cloud Is Very Expensive

Perhaps the most common misconception regarding cloud services globally concerns the pricing aspect. This especially affects decisions made in small to mid sized companies.

If your team is capable of managing analyzing and tracking your computing operations, that improves the cost-effectiveness of the cloud. Depending on the size and platform of computing, the cloud provides more material benefits than other avenues.

A survey of 1,300 businesses in the US and UK released by Rackspace, showed that for 66%, cloud services have reduced costs. Whereas only 17% claimed that it failed to do so. As a matter of fact, most businesses do decide to move their data to the cloud do so for cost-efficiency. To save the money and resources they would otherwise have to spend of physical equipment and IT management personnel.

In the long run, comparing the cost of accessibility, flexibility as well as the possibility of losing your company’s data and apps to protect from unexpected attacks and natural disasters like: fire, robbery, floods, earthquakes, to only to mention a few. Cloud services were invented and established for convenience and cost-efficiency in the first place. Of course, a well-researched choice of a good provider is a factor here as well.

#2. We Must Either Move Everything To The Cloud Or Move Nothing

A lot of the CTOs of today believe the cloud is created in such a way that if you adopt a cloud service, you’ll have to choose between instantly moving all your data and apps or none of them. This is not true and is quite a widespread misconception.

Though some experts would prescribe moving your business totally to the cloud at once, in reality this process doesn’t need to be instantaneous.

You can adopt the hybrid approach, deciding to move a single workload at a time. That way you can gain incremental value from the cloud with each application or service you migrate. Eventually reaping the full benefits over time.

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#3. Virtualization And Cloud Computing Are Interchangeable

This is yet another mistake most CTO’s make based on lack of understanding of the concept.

Cloud computing is a technology that enables you to gain access to multiple apps and services via the internet. This practice allows the use of a network and remote servers to store, manage, and process data, rather than local servers or computers. While Virtualization is the creation of a virtual — rather than actual — version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources. Virtualization is therefore a software that manipulates hardware to add value to cloud computing.

Though virtualisation is a strong base of cloud computing, but virtualisation does not make up the cloud. Yes, virtualization is one of the principal systems that makes cloud computing work efficiently, but the two technologies are not interchangeable.

Large scale firms often use cloud computing and virtualisation together to gain a private cloud server while small or mid sized firms would love to use these technologies separately for better gains.

#4. Once You Are Completely In The Cloud, You’ve Got Nothing To Worry About

This is another popular one among the false assumptions about cloud computing that every CTO’s must be aware of. Cloud boosters or marketers tend to mention this often during advertisements or marketing campaigns. But the truth is, the cloud is not a panacea for all IT problems.

What happens when your organization’s cloud service provider suffers from a power outage or server issues? Or what happens if we have limited internet access in a location where we need the most vital information? Then your employees wouldn’t be able to gain access to the company’s data stored in the cloud; except if there is a sort of backup on servers or storage devices.

This and a few more are the worries of a total cloud user, that is why it’s recommended to use qualified and well equipped cloud service providers like CloudSigma that execute resource requests in real-time so you can build dynamic cloud infrastructure that always performs.

#5. The Government and Cyber Security Agencies Would Have Routine Access To Your Business Data In The Cloud

This is yet another baseless assumption most CTO’s make about cloud computing.

When you adopt the cloud system of service delivery, only your IT team will be able to setup accessibility options as well as define the system’s rights and access restrictions.

As a matter of fact, here at CloudSigma, we provide you a high level of cloud privacy in such a way that our data team doesn’t have ungranted right/access to your business data/applications. Your company remains the sole owner of whatever you store in your cloud system. It’s your company’s data, and not the government’s or other cyberbodies! We put restrictions on our locations so no requests can be made by foreign governments or agencies. You control your data compliance.

What’s Next??

So where do you stand as the CTO of your company?

Do you choose to remain in the group who would rather stay away from new technology due to assumptions, rumors or fear of risk? Or do you choose to be the kind of who would rather lead through implementing innovation and  integrate cloud services.

We recommend that before you launch your business data in the cloud, you try the service and give it a good trial run before committing to it.

This was our take on the top false assumptions about cloud computing you can make as a CTO.

At CloudSigma, you can create a cloud server in less than 30 seconds and get a seven day free trial without having to enter your credit card information. Get started today!

Happy computing!

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About Ekaterina Palasheva

Ekaterina is a Marketing Expert at CloudSigma, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Business Administration at the University of Mannheim. Following her strong interest in technology and the business of technology she is currently contributing to the website content of Cloudsigma and supports all marketing campaigns, analysis and events.