When the full force of the pandemic hit, businesses were forced to make rapid changes to the way they worked.
Whatever worries people had about cloud computing were left behind, as they needed cloud tools to keep their businesses moving.
But what are the biggest concerns around cloud computing and is there any truth in them?
1. Cloud’s biggest benefit is reduced IT costs
Cost savings are often thought to be the biggest benefit of replacing in-house IT services with cloud-based alternatives.
This is understandable, as low costs are a key motivator for outsourcing; and cloud services may fall under that category for many businesses.
There are financial advantages in changing IT costs from capital expenditure to operational expenditure, but these are by no means the primary benefit. Cloud can make your business more scalable with the ability to deploy computing resources as and when they are required.
The ability to apply resources rapidly without purchasing and installing additional hardware, for example, is a huge benefit for many businesses.
Cloud also plays a key role in underpinning the efforts of companies to digitally transform their activities.
So yes, cloud can reduce IT costs – but that’s not the biggest benefit.
Verdict: Myth.
2. Cloud computing costs more
Interestingly, another common belief about cloud technology is the exact opposite of the previous one.
This is based on the initial cost of migrating to the cloud, rather than upgrading existing on-premise infrastructure and software. There are also fears over service charges that can ramp up once the business has moved to the cloud provider.
This simply isn’t true. Consider some of the cost savings compared to on-premise hardware. When you pay as you go for your hardware and software resources with cloud, you’re only charged for the resources you use. This means you’re not spending money on servers, processing power or software licences that you don’t need or use.
Your staff also don’t need to spend so much time fixing and maintaining hardware, because the cloud provider is doing that for you.
Other costs saved include not having to rent a data centre or cover its electricity costs. These are all included in your cloud service.
Verdict: Myth.
3. Cloud is not as secure as in-house
While it’s understandable for businesses to have anxieties about entrusting their data and applications to a third party, security concerns are largely misdirected.
Cloud service providers invest heavily in security and compliance because it’s such a core part of their business. They need to offer a strong level of security to convince customers to migrate data and applications to their platforms.
The question is not whether the cloud is insecure, but whether your business is using it securely.
Verdict: Myth.
4. Cloud means better responsiveness
When businesses experience delays with their cloud solutions, it’s often caused by the IT department routing traffic through internal networks (backhauling), leading to increased complexity and poor user service.
They do this because they believe backhauling will give them greater control, stronger security or to access critical data or applications in on-premises data centres.
If businesses stop backhauling, they may benefit from reduced cloud delays, as providers have a global footprint of data centres and have invested in expansive content delivery network services.
The quality of your connectivity to cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS can be a concern. A secure, private connection with lower latency and consistent bandwidth can be provided through our Vodafone Cloud Connect service.
