Despite the growing cloud adoption rates, some companies are still reluctant to aggressively move workloads and applications to the cloud.

It’s time to separate fact from fiction and debunk some cloud computing related myths. Here are 8 popular cloud computing myths debugged. 

Myth #1: Your Current Computer Systems Will Work Just As Well in the Cloud as they Do Today

A network requires servers that can be set up either locally or in the cloud. However, servers in the cloud are shared and the management of that sharing incurs performance overhead. This performance hit could impact specialized industry systems designed for on-site servers. So if you have a traditionally designed application, there may be some performance issues.  

Myth # 2 Enterprises Are Still Experimenting with Cloud

Enterprises are investing significantly in cloud computing. According to a study by Cloud Connect, about 58% of enterprises spend more than 10% of their annual IT budgets on cloud services.  

Myth #3 Virtualizing the Servers is All You Need to do to Succeed in the Cloud

Virtualization is the process of taking a given task into the cloud, where a physical server creates a virtual machine to help you complete it more quickly than you could on your own. But a virtualized server by itself is not enough to succeed. Just like there is more to a vacation than choosing the destination, success in the cloud relies on the automated management infrastructure around the server working well.  

Myth #4 Cloud Providers Can Spy on the Activity in their Cloud

With privacy on many minds these days, the multi-billion-dollar cloud computing industry could collapse if even one major cloud provider was caught spying on their user’s data, or helping others do so. These providers are actually building security mechanisms to guarantee they themselves cannot access the data.  

Myth #5 It Is Easy to Change from One Cloud Provider to Another

This is not true, in fact, the bottom lines of many niche cloud providers require them to lock in their customers, typically with long term contracts or painfully high early termination fees.  

Myth #6 You Cannot Control Where Your Data Resides in the Cloud

This myth is easily addressed by selecting a cloud provider that has a global footprint and offers data accountability. When the workloads and applications being moved to the cloud require it, a private cloud is a simple way to address data governance. Customers that have to provide their users with cloud services on multiple continents must at least choose a service provider that can satisfy these needs with locations that adhere to strict policies regarding data governance in specified countries.  

Myth #7 You Can Either Be in the Cloud or Can Keep Your Current Setup with Physical Servers

In reality, the most effective way for an organization to see the benefits of the cloud is to use both setups simultaneously as they slowly transition into the cloud.  

Myth #8 Clouds Are Not Inherently Transparent

Customers that have to provide their users with cloud services on multiple continents must at least choose a service provider that can satisfy these needs with locations that adhere to strict policies regarding data governance in specified countries.

Conclusion

While we've addressed some commonly held myths about cloud security, ultimately the customer needs to examine the security and compliance requirements for each of the applications to be migrated to the cloud. Enterprises need to match their application requirements to the right cloud deployment based on the level of resource segregation required and on the cloud provider that delivers the security and data protection that's required.