Cloud computing has become one of the IT industry buzz words which are much beloved of marketing departments keen to promote hype but, usually fall short on substance. Cloud computing is here to stay, and billions are being invested by industry leading companies such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, but despite such a credible set of adherents, there are a number of myths which have grown up alongside the concept.

Cloud Computing is the End of Privacy

Cloud computing appears to have taken on the mantle of whipping boy for those concerned over privacy. The effect is two-fold; excessive fear on the issues by users and potential users, and excessive caution on the part of developers and solution partners.

Privacy issues really are an offshoot of privacy concerns and IT generally, but despite the paranoia, there are some genuine instances of true concern. There are the legal issues surrounding the use and protection of data which is stored on third-party systems; a burning issue is when does the data you have stored somewhere with someone else cease to become “your” data? For solution providers and users alike, data privacy agreements which are already in use have probably become obsolete in the light of cloud computing developments.

Cloud Computing is Unreliable

Cloud computing does not mean it is self-protecting nor builds in redundancy. Disaster recovery issues still apply, so if you intend on simply using one cloud for your data storage and business processes, then you are setting yourself up for failure in exactly the same way as relying on one server to store data.

Users and designers will still need to consider multiple redundancy and back-up in a cloud computing environment, and the cloud ought to be viewed as any other data protection medium – capable of failure, and plans should be made accordingly.

Cloud Computing is Not Scalable

Scalability and cloud computing as an issue is something typically heard from programmers – a good example is Twitter, the online social networking and updating site. Twitter started off using Ruby on Rails but with its popularity growing exponentially, the need to scale the operation up became insurmountable with RoR. The entire service is now being redeveloped in incremental stages using Scala.

Scalability issues can become cloud defeating unless adequate, precautionary planning is not undertaken. The issue of scalability is not a cloud computing problem per se – it is a problem associated with many of the programming languages which were designed to deploy applications rapidly without serious thought for the consequences of scaling. PHP is a popular web code, but it was never designed with scalability in mind. Cloud computing has simply uncovered inherent weaknesses on the programming language side for which new codes, such as Scala, are being developed to tackle.

Cloud computing brings with it several new challenges for developers and businesses looking to harness the power of the concept. As there are issues with the effective business deployment of cloud computing, it is imperative that companies partner with a solution provider who not only understands the application of cloud computing, but also the issues which may affect cloud users. These three myths represent only a sample of issues which face both developers and customers. It is a fallacy to view cloud computing as a universal panacea which only brings a ton of business benefits without any drawbacks, however while there are issues, we all should put them into the proper perspective before decisions are made.

Author Bio: Lawrence Reaves is a strong believer in DC IT services such as DC enterprise storage and DC virtualization. For these services, Lawrence recommends PLANIT Technology Group, which can be found online at: PLANITTech.com .

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: cloud computing environment,computing myth,cloud computing myth,cloud computing