Cloud computing has grown more popular as businesses, end users and customers decide to store their data or share their files. In fact, the worldwide public cloud will have grown from $182.4B in 2018 to $331.2B in 2022 according to Gartner.
Even with this rapid growth, organizations are still learning about the cloud or don’t properly understand its function. As a result, business leaders have developed misconceptions about how to leverage the cloud in their industry.
However, the cloud can be an extremely effective tool and knowledge on its uses, services and functions can save you time, energy and money. With that, here is a list of a few common misconceptions about the cloud.
The Cloud is Unsafe/Risky
A cloud infrastructure not only protects business from cyberattacks and theft, it secures your data against outages, natural disasters and any other unforeseen damage to your physical business. The cloud serves as a massive back-up system using the internet to store critical data. A private cloud, however, offers computing services on a private internal network.
Cloud service providers invest greatly on cybersecurity as a means of guaranteeing the best possible service. In reality, the majority of cyber security breaches on the cloud were caused by user error.
On the cloud, all data is encrypted and backed up as well so users are protected from data theft.
All Cloud Providers Are The Same
There are many different types of cloud providers. It’s important to research which company fits your business needs best. Furthermore, there are different types of cloud services. There is a public cloud, a private cloud and a hybrid cloud which combines elements of the other two. Determining which cloud service suits your goals best is just as important as the service provided.
When You Choose a Cloud Provider, You Indefinitely Commit
As mentioned above, there are many different types of providers, offering a range of services. And some cloud services are better with some providers than with others. There might be certain features of your existing business you don’t wish to migrate with one provider. Cloud services are not an all or nothing affair.
As a result, many organizations are opting to adopt a multi-cloud solution. Multi-cloud solutions offer flexibility in pricing, services and compatibility. Additionally, a multi-cloud strategy reduces the risk of certain cyber attacks and can further prevent data loss.
Cloud Migration means transferring everything to the cloud
When moving to the cloud you can keep certain things in-house as well. What you keep internally and what you transfer over to the cloud all depends on your goals, costs, budgetary constraints and performance. Optimization doesn’t necessarily mean complete cloud migration. For some businesses optimization could be moving certain features and data to the cloud and keeping others on premises.
It Costs Less Than What I Pay Now
Cutting costs is often touted as one of the biggest benefits of adopting a cloud infrastructure. It’s more complicated than that. The fact of the matter is, businesses focus too much on savings without researching how to implement new cloud technologies once they’ve migrated.
Moreover, businesses fail to calculate costs during busier periods of the year. Reality is more complicated than a selling point and costs could vary.
Cloud Computing Means Giving Up My IT Team
Many business leaders believe that upon adopting cloud services, their existing IT team will become redundant. However, this is not necessarily the case. Nerds Support, for instance, is a Managed Service provider that offers Co-management services. Co-management means our partners keep their existing IT department and we provide additional support when they need it.
This option works best for smaller companies experiencing growth and increased workload. Or alternatively, companies that wish to focus on larger IT projects and need assistance taking care of less essential tasks.
You Can’t Rely On The Cloud
What happens if you experience downtime and lose connection to the cloud? If your office loses power in an electrical storm or through a power outage, the cloud backups allows you to access mission critical data from any device.
Think about it. If a server goes down in your office using an in house network, the entire business stops. Data saved on the cloud takes a matter of minutes to access so you can pick up where you left off.
Automated back-up systems are an inherent part of any good cloud provider.
Migrating Is Too Complicated
How long it takes to move to the cloud depends on the complexity of the network and environment. Assuming it’s a company that requires few services, it takes about ten to 14 days. Cloud providers often migrate businesses that work with third party vendors or have massive networks because of the nature of their business. These can take about six months to complete.
On the other hand, before moving to the cloud, there are ways you can prepare that could ease the transition towards a cloud infrastructure.
Maintaining compliance will be too difficult
Meeting compliance standards is a big issue for many businesses. Nevertheless, the right cloud provider will guarantee you achieve compliance on the cloud. Cloud compliance helps keep both the cloud provider and the client accountable and there is nothing built into the cloud itself that prevents it.
In fact, cloud vendors have made compliance a main focus since banks, CPA’s and financial advisers began migrating to the cloud. If you’re in a highly regulated industry, there are cloud providers that specialize in specific regulations like SOX, FINRA and SEC compliance to name a few.
The take away here is to do your research. The cloud is an important tool. And like most tools, they are useful only to those who are willing to understand how to use them.
