Hello, hello everyone! Welcome to yet another super exciting episode of the Cognixia podcast. If you have been listening to our previous episodes, you know that every week we bring to you some interesting news and information from the world of emerging technologies, helping you learn something and inspiring you to continue learning more. In case this is the first time you have tuned into our podcast, then you now know what we do and we would like to welcome you to the Cognixia podcast.
This week are going to do something we love doing – busting myths. Like with just about everything that exists in this world, the technology space is also rife with a lot of myths and misconceptions which prove to be rather silly sometimes or could even lead someone to make very expensive errors in their work or life. This makes busting myths super important, of course.
In today’s episode, we will debunk not one, not two, but FIVE myths about the cloud. Now, we know that cloud computing has been around for a significant amount of time now. The Covid-19 pandemic sure accelerated cloud adoption around the world as enterprises got pushed into a corner, necessitating a jump to remote operations made embracing the cloud almost indispensable. However, modern myths still sway decisions and opinions at large in data centers and office hallways swirling around cloud conversations, proving to be a major hindrance in letting organizations reap the complete benefits of the cloud.
Before we begin busting these myths, we would like to highlight the fact that innovators and pioneers are all set to reap more than $1 trillion in run-rate EBIDTA across Fortune 500 companies alone in 2030. To realize this goal, leveraging the full range of benefits offered by cloud computing will undoubtedly be critical, such as incredible flexibility, reliability, and scalability. We can’t even begin to emphasize the potential of cloud computing to open up the next generation of opportunities for both individuals and organizations.
According to a 2021 O’Reilly survey, today, almost 50% of organizations have a cloud-first approach and about 30% of the organizations surveyed choose to describe themselves as cloud-native. Yet another 37% of the surveyed organizations have plans in place to become cloud-native in three or more years.
Now that we have established what a cool thing cloud computing is, not that you all needed a reminder, of course, let us move on to the main agenda of today’s episode –
Debunking five major cloud computing myths.
Myth # 1: When you embrace the cloud, you must give up control
Now, we can tell you with 100% certainty that this is so not true. When you invest in cloud computing, you get the benefits of another company – the cloud service provider’s investment in data centers, networks, maintenance, training, and expertise. All of these are extremely valuable. This in turn gives the enterprise additional control and capacity to manage its resources. Embracing the cloud leads to greater control, better visibility, and improved compliance.
Cloud computing enables enterprises to focus their energy on more important aspects of the business like security and optimization and planning for the future, instead of wasting time, energy, and resources on managing infrastructure, downtimes, etc.
Myth # 2: Cloud is only for organizations with simple, straightforward environments
This is a straight-up myth. No matter how complex your environment is, the cloud will always be a good fit for you. Organizations of every size, every complexity, every structure, and every scale can upgrade to the cloud. One huge advantage this gives organizations is that they can very easily scale up and scale down to keep up with their operations and needs. This gives the business greater agility, greater room for innovation, as well as valuable opportunities for enhancing their automation capabilities and scalability.
Such is the importance and value of the cloud that enterprises spent almost $74 billion n cloud infrastructure in 2021, which is about 9% more than the spending in 2020. It is expected that by 2026, public cloud spending will go on to account for more than 45% of all worldwide enterprise IT spending up from less than 17% just about five years earlier. These are figures reported by Gartner based on their international surveys, so you can understand how seriously enterprises everywhere are taking the cloud.
Myth # 3: Companies in regulated industries should stay away from the cloud
When you operate in a tightly regulated industry, such as healthcare or finance, migrating data and infrastructure off-site can raise some eyebrows for sure. However, did you know that the United States Federal Government spent about $6.9 billion in 2020 on the cloud and this number is expected to reach around $8.1 billion in 2021, as reported by Capgemini?
So, with all the regulations that the US government has to follow and the security protocols, it needs to keep up with, how many unscrupulous elements would be trying super seriously to compromise or steal the data and information from the government at all times, they can still invest so heavily in the cloud, enterprises across industries should feel a little more confident doing it themselves, no?
Myth # 4: If the data is out of sight, it no longer remains reliable or resilient
Now, here we would like to stress something that everybody should know and think about. When you embrace the cloud, it doesn’t mean you move everything you have to the cloud or the same cloud. There are no rules like that here. An enterprise is free to mix and match as they deem fit. They can continue to retain their proprietary or super-sensitive data on a private cloud in the data center, while the other data can go onto the public cloud platform. Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategies are a better fit and offer greater freedom to organizations. It also helps the organization build greater business resilience.
A hybrid or multi-cloud strategy would also hold the organization in great stead to withstand surges in demand for computing power and data, while also offering robust support for the massive usage of devices by the employees, stakeholders, customers, etc.
Myth # 5: Cloud constricts flexibility
Nothing could be further from the truth than this. The cloud is super fluid concerning your computing and bandwidth needs, as well as your budgets. With the cloud, you no longer have the headache of buying and adjusting your servers every time your requirements change. Moreover, the cloud offers a range of as-a-Service models which not only offers incredible flexibility to the enterprise but also helps them save big-time on costs incurred.
As a thumb rule, the cloud will almost always offer more flexibility than on-premise installations.
Now, one thing that we would like to say is that the cloud is no Midas, you can’t turn everything into gold by just bringing in the cloud. But in the competitive, fast-paced, rapidly evolving times we live in, where digital transformation is not just a fancy goal but a need of the hour, the cloud is the foundation an organization’s digital aspirations would be built on and achieved. Like with every innovation – new and old, there would be myths and misinformation rampant about the cloud too. IT decision-makers would have to pay heed to their honest advisors while using their sensibilities and reliable information to make the right decisions for their organizations.
With that, we come to the end of this week’s Cognixia podcast. If you would like to build a career in cloud computing, we would like to recommend getting an official cloud computing certification from two of the most popular, world-renowned cloud platforms – Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. Hit us up with a DM or reach out to us on our website to know more about our live online instructor-led training for AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification and Microsoft Certified Cloud Administrator or an Azure DevOps professional. 2022 is about to end so this is a good time to prepare to leap in your career for next year after all, right?
So, we will see you next week with another interesting, exciting episode of the Cognixia podcast. Until then, happy learning!
