The cloud computing market is now forecasted to reach $411 billion in 2020. Considering in 2010 this relatively new industry was worth an estimated $68 billion, this shows an enormous market growth in a very short amount of time.
However, with all new technologies comes a certain amount of inaccuracies and misconceptions. This is understandable given the clouds rapid rise and the nature of its proposal; moving an entire business operation is a potentially daunting task. Although it’s always good to be sceptical, there can be no question now that the cloud era has arrived and it’s here to stay.
Cloud benefits are now well documented, but some myths concerning the cloud still remain. This blog post will look to debunk them and explain any confusion surrounding cloud technologies.
This is probably the most common basis of misinformation about the cloud. It’s completely understandable; a new technology that processes and stores all sensitive business and customer data offsite which can be accessed remotely from anywhere… surely this benefits the hacker? Well, not really.
You have to remember that the biggest risk to cloud hosting providers is a security breach, so their efforts to combat such an event are extensive. The amount of time, knowledge and investment dedicated to securing their service is likely far superior to any in-house IT equivalent. It’s also worth mentioning the surprisingly high number of data breaches suffered by businesses as a result of human error or internal threats, the chances of which are hugely reduced in a cloud environment.
Despite the staggering market valuations mentioned earlier, many still consider the cloud a new technology – something for the future that is still in its infancy and needs refining. It’s almost as though the cloud has been a victim of its own success, and such rapid growth and hype has led many to believe it will be short-lived and soon replaced by ‘the next best solution’.
In reality, the cloud has been optimised for years. Any future refining and advancements would only be improving on an already optimised service. If you regard AWS as cloud computing’s break into the mainstream market, it’s a technology that is fast approaching 20 years of industry authority. That’s more market experience than the iPhone.
The only loss of control experienced when adopting a cloud solution are the tasks you decide to pass onto your cloud hosting provider to undertake. Expanding resources to match business growth, maintaining and updating infrastructure, monitoring applications and ensuring high levels of security can all be taken off your hands by a cloud partner. This frees up time for your IT team to focus on business projects and your data, which you are still 100% in control of – the only change being where the data is processed and stored.
Labelling cloud services as an expensive option is a generalisation. That’s not to say it won’t be more expensive, but it depends on a number of factors and should always be compared to performance. More expensive, but improved performance and availability can still be good value for money. Cloud services are now often delivered on a usage based model, offering resource as a fully scalable solution, meaning you only pay for what you use.
Where cloud computing solutions really become cost effective are in the long term. Any upfront investment into the required infrastructure is removed and the cost of maintaining and updating these resources can, depending on the cloud model and provider you choose, also be eliminated.
With cloud providers taking over many of the responsibilities of in-house IT teams, it may seem like the cloud is causing disruption to employment in certain areas of the industry. However, in reality, instead of eliminating these positions it is simply transforming them. IT departments can focus on developing internal processes, applications and strategies to aid the growth of the business, whilst hosting providers fulfil the role of cloud experts and specialists.
Hopefully this blog post has been helpful, and any misconceptions surrounding the cloud have been cleared up. If you have questions about any of our services or you’re considering migrating to the cloud, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
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Matthew is Secura's content specialist, producing gripping, emotionally complex, edge of your seat, cloud hosting articles and videos.
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