During our recent Involta AWS Immersion Day event, Involta’s Chief Innovation Officer Michelle Bates presented on the importance of having a cloud strategy, but mentioned that there are some misconceptions and myths around the value of cloud. Getting over the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt…aka “FUD”
According to Gartner here are The Top 10 Cloud Myths:
Myth 1: Cloud is always about money
If you are considering a cloud journey solely because you think it is going to be cheaper, it’s the wrong reason to go to the cloud. The conversations you should be having should revolve around value, speed and innovation. Business disruptors happen daily in business and new companies entering your industry are starting in the cloud. Are you prepared to be as scalable and flexible as they are going to be?
Myth 2: You have to be cloud to be good
So numbers two and three really go together. You can’t just haphazardly throw anything and everything on the cloud. You have to find the right place for the right stuff… and the definition of right should be based on your business needs and goals. For example, you may choose to keep your “secret sauce” applications on-premises or in a private data center because you want to keep them close but a decision like that has nothing to do with technology.
Myth 3: Cloud should be used for everything
See number 2 above and remember moving to the cloud requires a wholistic analysis of all departments and divisions of your company.
Myth 4: “The CEO says so” is a cloud strategy
The because “I said so” reasoning is not a strategy. It won’t help you look at your technology landscape, identify dependencies and break them down into prioritized plans for progress. It also won’t help align your business drivers to your technology needs.
Myth 5: You need one cloud strategy or vendor
Cloud strategy can change over time so it should be scalable and flexible. This may mean you have more than one strategy to fit more than one need. Also, vendors have learned to partner with one another to ensure you are getting the best fit for your company’s cloud needs.
Myth 6: Cloud is less secure than on-premises capabilities
Cloud is already HITRUST/HIPAA/PCI/FedRAMP/etc. compliant. Can you afford to build your own data centers to meet and maintain all of those specification? Put your capital to better use for growing your business and outsource your IT to trusted cloud providers.
Myth 7: Cloud is not for mission-critical use
This is just not the case. Cloud technology has matured in several areas such as regulatory compliance, security, performance and availability as providers grow larger and more accomplished. Your decision should be made on a case-by-case basis depending on the size of your organization, the perceived risks and the applications’ specifics.
Myth 8: Cloud = Data Center
It shouldn’t just be about shutting down your on-premises data centers, it should be about moving the right workloads to the right place. Cloud is about automation and continuous service delivery. Data center is the “where” and cloud is about the “how”.
Myth 9: Migrating to the cloud means you automatically get all cloud characteristics
Migrating a traditional application in the cloud on IaaS doesn’t give you the same benefits as rebuilding that application to be cloud native and built on micro-services which gives more flexibility for management, integration etc.
Myth 10: Virtualization = private cloud
Virtualization without automation is not cloud.
Now knowing some of the myths that may stop you in your tracks and halt your transition to the cloud, are you ready to create a cloud computing strategy that will provide you with an environment that gives you true business enablement? Learn more about Involta’s cloud strategy consulting here.
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