Challenging Cloud Myths, Part 1

First in a series…

Debunking Cloud Computing Myths

There is no denying that cloud computing is one of the hottest trends in the tech industry. While incredibly popular, the cloud is still fairly new. The move from “old school” on premise computing to the “new school” cloud is a significant shift that naturally comes with a certain amount of anxiety and uncertainty.

• Let’s start by reminding ourselves of the significant advantages the cloud offers, it:
• Enables businesses to focus on their core competency
• Enables rapid time to benefit
• Empowers individual business units
• Simplifies technology decisions with sand boxes, preconfigured environments and the elimination of capital investments
• Allows companies to control costs with “pay as they grow” or “pay for usage” plans
• Lets a contact center easily increase or decrease the number of agents supported

Despite these benefits, technology buyers continue to have concerns about the cloud. I’m calling these concerns myths, because they are based more on hearsay rather than fact, and I’m going to debunk each one in this series of blog posts.

Myth#1 – The cloud is not secure.

Frankly, concerns about cloud security are no more valid than concerns about on premise security. Software providers that deliver solutions via the cloud have a vested interest in keeping the service highly secure. Unlike a single organization where security is part of one IT professional’s job, most cloud software companies have a team of security experts whose core competency and day-to-day job is ensuring a secure cloud environment. Typically, a cloud software vendor applies more effort and resources to security than any one single organization. Security in the cloud has increasingly become more sophisticated. Most reputable cloud vendors use hardware that resides in security patrolled, disaster-proof data centers. Today, cloud vendors take advantage of multi-threaded distributed intrusion detection models, security information and event management systems and distributed application firewalls. We’ve also seen a proliferation of cloud security industry standards and certifications, such as the Cloud Security Alliance’s (CSA) Security, Trust & Assurance registry that encourages transparency of security practices among cloud vendors. In addition, the Service Organization Control (SOC) 1, 2 & 3 audit standards for data centers and the CSA developed the Cloud Control Matrix, a set of security controls. Security threats in the cloud are no greater, and in many cases much less common, than those faced by on-premise systems.