Cloud Computing: 5 things that the Cloud is Not

By Darshik Jariwala - March, 28th 2013

Cloud Computing is undoubtedly one of the biggest advancement in technology. It radically decreases the expense in the infrastructure department, also proven to be more efficient, reliable, and easier to manage and operate. Be it IaaS, SaaS or PaaS, different organizations deploy the cloud service or services they require.

However, despite garnering so much attention among the tech and non-tech communities there still remains some doubt as to what exactly it is.

 

Related post: Introduction to Cloud Computing

 

You may refer to the link above in order to understand what cloud computing means and does. But equally important to understand is what the Cloud is not! So let’s clear the myth surrounding it.

Here are 5 things below which explain as to What the Cloud is not.

 

Cloud is Not a place

Cloud is not a place. When someone says they are moving to cloud computing, it does not mean they are moving to different place. They are adopting a particular cloud service which suits their current needs as it provides several benefits such as cost-effectiveness, efficiency, better management, etc.

It changes the way they used to approach, perceive and provides IT services. The datacenter is mostly not located in the same place; it is probably in a different geographical location all together.

Cloud is Not Lock-in

Lock-in is not a mandatory option. Lock-in in fact defeats the purpose of moving to cloud. Cloud computing is about flexibility. You should be able to choose the services you need and even more importantly, which company offers the best one.

You may want a different service provider for your network solutions and storage solutions each. This broad array of solutions is what makes the cloud so powerful and efficient and yet comparatively inexpensive.

Cloud is Not server virtualization

Despite the common perception, cloud is not the next-level of server virtualization. It can be a part of cloud if you require, but it would be wrong to assume that cloud is all about server virtualization.

Google, for example, which has deployed the cloud architecture, does not use server virtualization. So server virtualization is a way how you can better manage your infrastructure across a datacenter.

Cloud is Not an Island

When you plan to move on to cloud, you usually ask yourself whether you want to build a private cloud or public cloud. And depending on that you make your business plans taking into considering your requirements and expenditure.

But cloud is not an island where you presume that the entire infrastructure is located at one place and you might lose the inter-connectivity and access to it someday. The right cloud strategy is the perfect hybrid of private and public cloud offered by the selected best from the respective service providers.

Cloud is Not top-down

The old traditional IT approach of delivering services is being steadily replaced by the cloud. The number of Internet users, home users and business users is already huge and growing exponentially day by day. For any new startup or small business, it becomes a huge responsibility to constantly maintain the ever-growing infrastructure, and hence, cloud computing offers a perfect solution. And for these reasons, the sooner the companies and organizations embrace the cloud, the better it is for their own business growth and innovations considering the competition for a company in IT today. And that is why, Cloud is a bottom-up and not top-down phenomenon.

A lot of companies have already deployed cloud solutions, and it has been proved as nothing but beneficial for them. Some well-known cloud providers around the world are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Rackspace, Citrix, etc.

Please note: This article is based on a research paper by Citrix which appeared on Infoworld.

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