Businesses are moving workloads to the cloud to enable new processes and unlock new value, promoting process efficiency, collaboration, and insight. In this article, we discuss some of the myths surrounding the various cloud platforms, helping you to avoid the major pitfalls and prepare your IT organization for migration to a cloud infrastructure.

1. Cloud Myths
and Realities
THE TRUTH ABOUT MOVING TO THE CLOUD

2. Provides businesses with fast access to high-quality
infrastructure.
Allows you to scale your compute power to handle peak
loads much more rapidly, efficiently and cost-effectively.
Public Cloud Computing...

3. Offers benefits for business users that include greater control
over servers.
Can be tailored to your own preferences and in-house styles.
Have the potential for greater security when you are legally
required to use secure internal storage for consumer data.
Private Cloud Computing...

4. It doesn’t have to be a case of one or the other.
A hybrid cloud can provide a holistic approach to the
consumption of IT services, matching the right solution to the
right job.
Regardless of which approach you take - private, public or hybrid
- each has its own set of integration and management
challenges.
But...

5. Moving to the public cloud is all about
the total cost of ownership
Lowering the total cost of ownership and freeing your
business of the expense of owning and maintaining
infrastructure is a definite advantage for certain
applications and workloads.
Public cloud computing can also accelerate business
transformation through agility, innovation, scalability and
faster time to market.
Myth #1

6. Moving to the public cloud is all about
the total cost of ownership
While IT resource consumption is flexible in a public cloud
environment, the contract underlying those services may
not be as flexible.
Picking the right instance type is vital for cost savings:
each instance needs to be just powerful enough for the
workload it will run.
A cloud management platform assists in minimizing public
cloud costs, allowing you to track and control your public
cloud spending.
Myth #2

7. The public cloud is infinitely scalable
and is optimized for use
The most important attribute of the public cloud is elasticity: automatically
increasing and decreasing compute power to match demand.
Not all cloud infrastructures can adequately scale applications and traffic
dynamically as predicted thresholds are exceeded.
Public clouds are powerful, scalable and highly available.
If not managed and monitored correctly, they can also be very expensive,
especially if you do not power off instances when not in use, such as on
dev/test workloads at weekends.
Myth #3

8. You cannot directly control your data
in the cloud
When data is hosted off company premises, whether in a public cloud or using
a managed service provider, it may appear to be more vulnerable.
Cloud computing offers a team of experts to protect your data stored in the
cloud, along with enterprise-level infrastructure that provides redundancy,
backup and recovery services to protect your data continuously.
Data residency is a key concern. Many countries do not allow the export of
personal data or its storage in another country.
Organizations that must provide users with cloud services in multiple
countries should select a cloud provider offering a global footprint and data
accountability.
Myth #4

9. Converting to any form of cloud
computing can be expensive
Many organizations concerned about the cost of adopting cloud-based
applications start incrementally.
Initially offload applications such as email, word processing, or data storage on a
trial basis before committing larger and more business-critical workloads.
Benefits to be gained can include; a reduction in complexity, a significant lowering
of IT costs, and more flexible and agile service delivery.
Delivering even one or two applications using a private cloud can have a major
impact on both the bottom line and productivity.
Use a cloud management platform to reduce public cloud spending by
automating power schedules for non-production instances, decommissioning
expired instances, and matching instance types to workloads.
Myth #5

10. It’s impossible to achieve public cloud
security and compliance
While public cloud computing is sometimes perceived as less secure, most
security breaches involve on-premises data center environments.
Cloud computing in itself does not introduce any new or unforeseen
vulnerabilities.
It can provide a unified platform for conducting and verifying compliance audits.
Major public cloud providers have considerable budgets for security, including
staff for information protection.
They also offer temperature control, continuous monitoring, controlled and
restricted access to files, virus protection and firewall security.
Myth #6

11. The cloud requires more
IT management
This may be true initially as applications are migrated to the cloud.
Once the conversion is completed, IT is freed from managing the software,
hardware and data protection of the migrated apps and associated data.
Every application migrated to a cloud infrastructure means a reduction in
maintenance costs and management overhead.
Enable personalized self-service through a customizable service catalog and
on-demand user portal.
Define permissions for users to manage their own instances and complete
simple tasks themselves, freeing IT to focus on complex problems.
Myth #7

12. The public cloud is less reliable than
in-house systems
Good public cloud providers have regular automated backups to ensure
disaster recovery.
Cloud data centers likely provide better data backup mechanisms than your
current system.
With multiple layers of redundant components, power, physical and
cybersecurity measures, as well as trained personnel, cloud data centers
provide an economy of scale impossible to duplicate except at the largest
enterprise IT centers and offer a level of reliability that most businesses
cannot afford.
Myth #8

13. The cloud will take away IT jobs
The cloud doesn't replace your staff; instead, it allows them to focus on projects
that support your business goals and objectives.
Like all tools, using the cloud requires capable staff for effective implementation.
IT becomes a service provided to the business and its users.
IT can use the cloud to make systems better fit the needs of staff and customers.
IT staff can now concentrate on more strategic business requirements: improving
processes, quality and availability, as well as technological innovation.
Myth #9

14. Virtualization is equivalent to
private cloud computing
While virtualization enables cloud computing, it is not equivalent to private
cloud computing.
Virtualization software separates physical infrastructures to create various
dedicated resources.
It makes it possible to run multiple operating systems and multiple
applications on the same server at the same time, helping to cut costs and
ease IT management.
Virtualization is the fundamental technology that powers cloud computing.
Myth #10

15. Virtualization is equivalent to
private cloud computing
Cloud computing can and often does include virtualization products to
deliver shared computing resources, software or data — both as a
service and on-demand through the Internet.
Cloud computing provides self-service capability, elasticity, automated
management, scalability and pay-as you go service that is not inherent
in virtualization alone.
Myth #10

16. Are you ready for the cloud?
While there is plenty of myths surrounding cloud computing,
it can bring you real benefits.
Embracing cloud infrastructures where it makes sense for
your business, can speed your time to revenue and reduce
your costs.
But embracing cloud means cutting through the myths and
the hype to find real solutions.

17. Learn More...
Download the Cloud Manager's Guide: Cloud Myths and
Realities: The Truth About Moving to the Cloud
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Public and Hybrid cloud automation
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