myths about cloud computing

WHAT IS

CLOUDCOMPUTING

Contents

Executive Summary Introduction Myth 1: Cloud Is Not Secure Myth 2: Critical applications do not belong in the cloud Myth 3: Performance is a problem in the cloud

Myth 4: The Cloud Is Too Complex

Myth 5: The Cloud Is Not For Enterprises

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Contents




Executive Summary

Introduction

Cloud computing, in the recent years, has become a subject of significant discussion among the industry experts. The notion is surrounded by a lot of hype, misperceptions, and myths created by the firms aggressively looking for providing robust cloud infrastructure, and do not have much knowledge about the concept.

While some companies believe that the cloud servers can considerably reduce their capital and operating expenditures, others fear that it just a myth and will fade with further technological advancements. The architecture is also doubted to have security constraints.

This white paper dispels various myths on cloud server hosting, while separating reality from the hypothesis. The paper also examines the potential of cloud computing industry by comparing its current state with the imperative benefits it offers to the businesses.

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage,

applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”


“Cloud is the latest buzz in this rapidly changing and complex business environment. The computing solutions are believed to significantly lower the infrastructure and other IT related costs of the businesses of all sizes. Cloud computing as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology means:

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Cloud Is Not SecureWith the advent of cloud, there has been a major shift in the deployment and consumption pattern of computing resources. Despite of innumerable cloud benefits such as flexibility, enhanced security, utility billing model, a large number of potential cloud customers still pose adoubt about the security of data stored in the cloud.

Origin of the term ‘Cloud’


Most of the times, the businesses are vexed about the location of the data center where the server is housed. The ignorance about the server positioning, security mechanism deployed by the service provider raises distrust in the minds of prospective clients and inhibits cloud adoption.

Moving to the cloud environment brings forth certain legitimate security concerns in the minds of the organizations:

• What security mechanism will the service provider deploy?• To what extent will the data be monitored?• Who will ensure comprehensive security measures for cloud?• What kind of security measures should be included in the contract with the service provider?• What all standards and certificates should be ensured for optimal cloud security?

All these pertinent questions, fuel the distrust that how secure is the cloud in reality?

Explanation:The concern of the businesses around the cloud security is quite reasonable, as both public and private clouds house huge volumes of highly confidential and business sensitive data pertaining to client information, products or financials in it.t

Myth

01

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However, to mitigate the cloud security and control risks, service providers deploy

top-notch security measures for its users. Most of the cloud hosts have enterprise

class tools such as firewalls, role based access controls and surveillance systems

to ensure that the customer data is accessed only by the authorized personnel.

Stringent measures are also implemented to ascertain comprehensive protection

against the distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS), usually in the form of mass

emails that can have an adverse effect on the businesses without an adequate

infrastructure to keep them at bay.

In cloud, the data in transit over the Internet is protected with SSL encryptions.

The cloud providers delegate an information security team to keep a constant

vigilance over servers and data centers.

Gartner, a leading research firm predicts that cloud computing market will reach up

to a shocking figure of 150 billion dollars, thus describing that companies are either

using cloud or are moving applications to the cloud.

It is apt to describe cloud as the bank of the current enterprise technology world.

In fact, cloud computing is the safest way to manage business critical information

and data in a remote location under the stringent security measures that are far

more affordable and practical in comparison to on –premise data storage

provisions.


Explanation:

Critical applications do not belong in the cloudThe delivery of business applications quickly and efficiently is of utmost importance for IT organizations. However, some businesses might refrain from deploying critical applications to the cloud. Most of the organizations have apprehension in shifting the complex and traditional hardware suites to the cloud environment.

The businesses are uncertain about the capability of the cloud to operate these complicated applications both speedily and securely

A mistruth that discourages the businesses from deploying critical applications to the cloud platform is that critical applications do not belong in the cloud.


Business critical applications can be securely deployed to the cloud based infrastructure.An organization can create a service catalogue and automate the critical applications such as SAP, Microsoft, and Oracle. It requires an effort on the part of the business to draft a roadmap that facilitates the deployment and configuration of cloud services for specific applications and services.

As a part of the roadmap creation, a business should opt for an efficient vendor that helps to design a cloud map comprising of various workflows and scripts that helps to automate the entire installation process. An efficient cloud road map should enable the organizations to install critical business applications that can effectively utilize both physical and virtual components of a cloud structure.

Cloud is a perfect platform for critical business applications. Cloud based infrastructure enables a robust computing environment that enables a quick and reliable delivery of business applications, to reduce IT infrastructure costs, and ensure comprehensive security of IT resources.

Myth

02

Though cloud has been welcomed by both small and large enterprises, this newly coined technology still poses a lot of questions for both global technocrats and computer geeks. Cloud appears to be a cheaper and more flexible platform in comparison to traditional data center infrastructure; however the questions that still daunts businesses in adopting this technology is that does it provide better performance?

Explanation: Unlike cloud computing, on premise data centers create havoc for businesses in terms ofhigh network downtime, sluggish access to the data and frequent data loss due to application crash, which in turn affects the credibility and competency of the company. Cloud on the other hand confirms virtual provisioning of resources on an Internet-based network, which helps them conveniently add more physical servers or memory by frequently provisioning for more virtual machines.

It is easy and less time consuming to deploy additional servers and data center resources to a cloud environment and in turn ensure high performance level and redundancy. Cloud provides a self-management portal which facilitates the ease of customization, as per fluctuating business requirements. The advanced servers built for the cloud operate on high performance blades, which is not possible for businesses to deploy in their own physical environments.

Cloud effectively guards against any hardware failure that might result in business interruptions and heavy losses. The data is safely stored on several servers housed in data centers across multiple locations. Thus, even if few of the servers storing information get crashed or damaged, the data can still be easily retrieved from cloud.

Most of the cloud providers drive high performance through auto scaling, which help businesses gauge and modify the available computing resources.


Performance is a problem in the cloudMyth

03

The Cloud Is Too Complex


Businesses can reap the benefits of scalability of resources, adequate data backups and robust security measures with cloud which makes enterprises overcome the challenge of poor performance associated with on premise data centers.

A hybrid cloud solution provides a perfect blend of both the worlds- scalability and cost effectiveness of cloud computing technology along with the unswerving performance of dedicated servers.

Explanation: The reality is far more different from what businesses think of. Cloud ensures simpler IT Management. It provides a robust and secured cloud storage mechanism to businesses and reduces the expense of maintaining expensive physical servers or on-premise IT experts. It lessens the burden of the IT department, which means that more resources can be used for other value generating activities within the organization.

Whenever a new product or service hits the marketplace, a lot of misconceptions or mistruths start flying around. Several businesses believe that cloud based solutions are unproven, too risky and complicated in comparison to their existing infrastructure, thereby giving rise to the myth of “Cloud is too complex”.

Some pertinent questions that keep on howling in the minds of business owners are:

• We have been working in this manner for years; what is the need for complicating things now?• How will I manage multiple cloud service providers with my limited resources?• How will I take care of several usernames, passwords that will be assigned to me for different portals? • Is it not a tiresome process to keep a track of all the invoices and payments that will be made to the service providers?

Myth

04

The data stored in the cloud can be easily accessed, updated and shared through any device across the globe. All that is required to access the cloud based applications is a simple Internet connection.

Cloud has emerged as a one stop solution for all IT related issues. It helps businesses design a scalable system of numerous, independent computing devices that ensure the benefits of grid computing, utility billing, multi-tenancy, scalability of resources and regular installation and updation of new applications by the cloud service provider.


In fact, one of the remarkable facts related to cloud technology is that most of the

Internet users or online users are unknowingly associated with cloud computing by

using webmail services, online storage of computer files and hard drive back up

maintenance etc. The emergence of online application stores has made our lives far

more simple and easy. People can today easily buy digital products ranging from

books, music, games and various other software at the ease of a click. Apple store

and Google Play are the live examples reflecting the success rate of cloud based

applications.

The management of cloud based services is quite easy. The ‘anytime anywhere’

availability of cloud solutions provide enterprises with a hassle free, on demand

provisioning of IT services that comprises of applications, servers , storage and

networks etc.

The robust security mechanism deployed by cloud providers, safeguard cloud

applications by storing them in enterprise class data centers, that is almost

impossible for any small business owner to match with. The cloud security

measures comprise of identity and access management, data loss prevention, web

security, email security, intrusion management, network security,SIEM (log

management and analysis), cloud database security, encryption and virtualization

security.

Cloud has emerged as a hosted service delivery model, wherein a large number of

businesses both large and small are opting to embrace cloud in order to make the

most of the IT budgets and maximize return on investments. The deployment of IT

services in the cloud ensures low capital expenditure, easy maintenance &

upgrades, increased flexibility and mobility of resources and improved IT security.


Cloud environment can be tailor made to suit the specific business needs. A user can either build their own private cloud or can hire a third party to manage their IT. A subscription based service –public cloud can also be availed, wherein the hardware and various other computing resources are shared among multiple users.

Cloud is an extremely user friendly technology with rich features such as convenient dashboards and graphical reports that help businesses to streamline complex information and processes.

The basic idea behind innovating the cloud was to make the management of web applications easier for businesses. Though the backend of the technology may be complicated, but an easy control panel and a graphical user interface makes it a user friendly model that best fits the business needs.


The Cloud Is Not For EnterprisesEarlier, cloud providers focused more on SMBs, due to the less amount of business complexity that they offered in comparison to enterprises. Usually, the new technologies or innovations are adopted by small businesses first, as the large organizations are more risk averse in their contrast. Moreover, it is often believed that it is a good business idea to firstly appease the small clients, resolve their challenges, convert them into a reference for your success and then grow and capture the larger market share accordingly.

However, this misconception in case of cloud computing did not vanish with time. Although, the cloud market penetration grew at a high pace, including various large organizations, but still the mistruth prevails, that cloud is not meant for enterprises.

Explanation: The fact that almost 60% of the cloud customers are large enterprises, answers the misconception. Cloud based applications are designed to ensure simplification, high business velocity, high scalability, ease of application, and multi-tenancy to all its users. The significant features such as simplified

Myth

05

consumption, enhanced time to value and scalability of resources are meaningful aspects for any organization irrespective of its size to opt for cloud services. The need to optimize the available resources and ensure economies of scale, has led many large enterprises to embark on the cloud platform along with various small businesses.

Robust cloud infrastructure provides businesses of all contours an unparalleled platform to secure on - demand resource provisioning to meet the fluctuating business demands. PaaS (Platform as a service) model considerably increases the significance of the cloud platform for companies of all sizes to adopt this efficient technology for their individual business requirements..


Cloud services benefits all its users, irrespective of its size to focus on their core business and help them to reap the benefits of scalability of resources, deploy mission critical applications, enterprise-ready solutions, secure and fully managed services.

The amount of client business complexity might increase with the size of the organization. However, there is a substantial upsurge in the overall cloud adoption rates and even the enterprises are seen adopting this technology. In the next several years, it is believed that cloud will definitely emerge as a standard enterprise fixture.

There has been lot of hype about cloud computing. Despite extensive benefits of cloud as well as growing adoption rates, some companies are still hesitant to aggressively move their workloads and applications to the cloud. Adoption of cloud undoubtedly intends cutting through the myths to discover the real business solutions.

Facts show that shifting gears to cloud can help businesses to accelerate time to revenue, streamline processes, improve accessibility, achieve economies of scale, cost-effectively globalize workforce and lessens the burden of IT department. enterprise fixture.

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