Common Cloud Computing Misconceptions Debunked!

September 12, 2012

We meet with businesses everyday to discuss their IT needs, and of course, we always advocate the move into the Cloud, and have been for the last few years, but increasingly we have to deal with common business and individual misconceptions about Cloud Computing. We thought we’d take some time to tell you our most common questions and answers. Enjoy!

1. It’s just a Technology Fad

The last time you sent an email from Gmail, or logged into Twitter to send a funny tweet, you were using Cloud Computing. Most people use and interact with Cloud Computing software as a service platforms (SaaS) on a daily basis, yet they may not realise it. Businesses, Schools, and Governments from all across the world are using Cloud Computing and year on year Cloud adoption has increased at a rapid rate. Rather than considering Cloud Computing as a fad, consider it as a powerful shift in the way we can harness technology, and utilise the many services available free on the web! (Think: Dropbox, or Flickr)

 2. The Cloud is not Secure 

There is generally a feeling that due to the intangible nature of cloud (being not a ‘physical thing’ per se) that it’s not safe. This is not the case, and in many ways, Cloud Computing affords much more security than an organisation could arrange independently or via an in-house data centre or server. For ISP’s like us, security is the foundation of our business, and we invest heavily in ensuring that our clients data is secure. We actually find that data is typically lost when an organization loses control over it, including how it’s stored, how it’s shared, how it’s secured and what its end users do with it. By handing control over to a service provider, this risk is diminished. The truth is that cloud-computing is a godsend to small and medium-sized business that could have never before afforded the top-tier data center and security technology that they can now afford by utilizing Cloud Computing.

3. Cloud Computing is more expensive

Whilst we understand that moving to Cloud may confront you with some of upfront costs, we truly believe that in the moving to the Cloud will, in time, save your business a whole wad of cash. As well as power, hardware and bandwidth, we’ll also help you save massively on IT management costs. Check out our pricing structures to see for yourself. Another great thing about Cloud Computing is that it means you can expect monthly, predictable bills which makes IT financial planning much simpler.

4. The (Incorrect) Notion that Virtualisation = Cloud 

As VP of Business Development at Rackspace said ‘”The misconception is that virtualization is cloud. Virtualization has become widely adopted in the enterprise for server consolidation. It’s an enabling technology, but the cloud is really about automation. People tend to connect popular virtualization technologies with the cloud, and if you look at the clouds out there they’re not built on these same virtualization technologies.” We couldn’t agree more, we were the first ISP in SA to develop ‘True Cloud’ servers, that can be provisioned online, automatically, and so we spend a lot of our time communicating the difference between Virtualisation and Cloud.

5. Dual Points of failure 

Since our clients rely on us for both their hosting, and their connection to the internet, they often worry about dual points of failure, which is understandable. However, up-time (like security) is the cornerstone of our business, we spend lots of time and money ensuring that our clients enjoy 99.99% uptime, and have many measures to ensure this (such as automatic traffic re-direction in the event of downtime).

We consider ourselves experts in the field of Cloud, and we actively encourage asking us questions, so feel free to reach us via email, Twitter or Facebook.

You can also visit our site to find out more about Cloud Computing – check out our Cloud 101 resource.