Top cloud myths... busted
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Misinformation about cloud computing feeds uncertainty and doubt and distracts from real opportunity and innovation, according to research firm Gartner Inc.
Saddled with both hype and a surfeit of applications, technologies and services, cloud computing is fertile ground for myth, platitudes and half truths. This misinformation, according to research firm Gartner Inc., feeds fear, uncertainty and doubt and distracts from real opportunity and innovation.
"Cloud computing, by its very nature, is uniquely vulnerable to the risks of myths. It is all about capabilities delivered as a service, with a clear boundary between the provider of the service and the consumer," said David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner Fellow.
Even with a mostly agreed on formal definition, multiple perspectives and agendas still conspire to mystify the subject even more. Gartner has highlighted 10 of what it calls “the most dangerous and misleading” cloud myths that include:
Cloud saves money. Saving money may be one of the benefits of moving to the cloud, but not all cloud-related pricing is coming down.
Cloud improves everything. Not all applications and workloads benefit from the cloud. Unless there are cost savings, moving a legacy application that doesn't change is not a good candidate.
Cloud is less secure than on-premises capabilities. While cloud providers should have to demonstrate their capabilities, once they have done so there is no reason to believe their offerings cannot be secure.
Cloud is not for mission-critical use. Cloud computing is being adopted in stages, so it is not surprising that early use cases are mainly not for mission-critical systems. But there are also many enterprises that are "born in the cloud" and run their business completely in the cloud.
Cloud instead of data center. A cloud strategy should not be equated with a data center strategy. Data center outsourcing, data center modernization and data center strategies are not synonymous with the cloud.
Cloud migration enables all cloud benefits. There’s a difference between applications hosted in the cloud and cloud services. Don't assume that "migrating to the cloud" means that the characteristics of the cloud are automatically inherited from lower levels (like IaaS).
More detailed analysis is available in the report "The Top 10 Cloud Myths." The report is available on Gartner's website at http://www.gartner.com/document/2860422.