There’s real promise for businesses across industries in moving to the cloud, especially with so many companies operating with remote teams. From scalability to budget savings, the cloud can help businesses simplify and streamline processes—but only if migrations are carefully planned and teams have full knowledge of what to expect.
Several myths and misconceptions around cloud computing persist, and they can hinder an organization from achieving the optimal results from a move to the cloud. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council detail and debunk common myths that can prevent businesses from leveraging cloud services fully and wisely.
1. Self-Hosted Platforms Are More Secure
Many organizations believe that they can’t move their confidential data to the cloud due to security concerns. However, cloud services are professionally managed and constantly updated. Many times, cloud infrastructure is actually more secure than a self-hosted platform. – Rohit Kapoor, Tekmonks
2. Data Sovereignty Isn’t An Issue
One myth is that data sovereignty isn’t key. Local laws and regulations define how data must be managed, stored and processed, and it varies between countries. Global enterprises cannot ignore these intricacies. It’s essential to have a trusted provider with digital expertise and global orchestration capabilities baked into their operations, which helps companies navigate a complicated geopolitical landscape. – Scott Williams, Orange Business
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3. The Benefits Aren’t Worth The Effort
Concerned about disrupting business-critical processes, some businesses might conclude that the benefits of cloud migration aren’t worth the effort. However, healthcare is just one example of an industry where cloud migration can transform many legacy manual processes into automated workflows, resulting in cost savings and innovation while providing a scalable and flexible infrastructure for responding to market shifts as well as unexpected events and disruptions. – Eron Kelly, Inovalon
4. Internal IT Loses Essential Control
There’s a myth that internal IT loses data and control in the cloud. Shifting solutions to the cloud frees up IT’s internal resources for mission-critical efforts and offers levels of security far beyond the limited capacity of internal teams. And since business units are typically hosted on elastic cloud-based infrastructures, IT teams can better manage costs while also eliminating significant capital upgrades. – Brian Haines, FM:Systems
5. It’s Not Well-Secured
The most common myth about the cloud is that it is not secure. Some businesses hesitate to fully leverage the cloud due to concerns about data security and privacy. However, the reality is that reputable cloud service providers invest heavily in security measures and protocols to protect their users’ data. – Kirimgeray Kirimli, Flatiron Software Corporation
6. You Can Shift Any Process As-Is
One of the common mistakes organizations make is moving their existing business processes exactly as they are to the cloud. This typically results in migrations not meeting expectations. The cloud should be considered as a platform for new business models and/or generating operational efficiency by changing business processes. For example, a data-platform or data-product approach will help businesses leverage the cloud better. – Rajaneesh Kini, Cyient Ltd.
7. The Cloud Is A Redundant And Secure Solution
The cloud has been historically marketed as redundant and secure by nature. However, as we have seen from outages and cyberattacks since the cloud’s introduction, companies looking for a secure and redundant solution should understand that the cloud is a foundation. They will need to build on top of it rather than thinking it will be redundant and secure out of the box. – Robert Giannini, GiaSpace Inc.
8. Cost Savings Are Guaranteed
There’s a misconception that migrating to the cloud guarantees cost savings. But managing the cost of cloud computing is an ongoing challenge. Surveys consistently reveal that companies overshoot their cloud budgets or pay for capacity they’re not using. That’s why ongoing optimization strategies, especially those focused on application footprint, are crucial for cloud deployment success. – Scott Sellers, Azul
9. Your Workload Must Be Multicloud-Ready
There’s a myth that your workload needs to be multicloud-ready or you might face vendor lock-in. Multicloud readiness absolutely delivers scalability and resilience to your business and operations, but it might increase the cost of operations. The concern about being locked in with a single cloud service provider is exaggerated, as no CSP is taking your business for granted. – Shailaja Shankar, Cisco
10. Multicloud Requires Special Gateway Devices
Many organizations are told that their multicloud setup needs special gateway devices in each cloud environment, which is overly complex and may counteract some of the key advantages of using the cloud in the first place. A better solution is both app-centric and network-centric, with a cloud-native approach to deliver the agility enterprises are after. – Ramesh Prabagaran, Prosimo.io
11. A ‘Lift And Shift’ Approach Is Effective
Adopting a “lift and shift” approach to cloud migration overlooks the critical challenges of data fragmentation and disconnected datasets. To ensure a successful transition, organizations need a comprehensive data strategy that includes planning for seamless integrations, interoperability and the unification of data models, laying a solid foundation for efficient and effective cloud operations. – Trisha Swift, Mula Integrative Health & Wellness
12. The Cloud Costs More Over Time
Myth: Cloud computing is more expensive over time than running workloads on-premises. Fact: Cloud computing can be expensive if solutions are not well-designed and managed. Some things will be more cost-effective to run on-premises. However, a well-architected solution running in the cloud can save a company money in the long run, as well as provide other benefits such as scalability and high availability. – Dara Warn, INE
13. The Cloud Protects You From Outages
Many believe they’re protected against outages simply because they’re hosted on AWS or Microsoft Azure. While standard cloud implementation achieves hardware resiliency, many haven’t established geo-redundancy, leaving clients at risk during regional internet outages or local data center failures. Critical applications must be hosted in at least two data centers, and load balancers should be employed for uptime. – Tobias Casey, Anteris
14. Cloud Storage Is Infinitely Scalable
A common myth is that cloud storage is infinitely scalable at no extra cost. The truth is, while the cloud offers scalability, costs can grow significantly with usage. Effective management and understanding of cloud service models are essential to optimizing benefits and controlling expenses, preventing unexpected budget overruns. – Adrien Nejkovic, Hearst Solution
15. Cloud Solutions Are One-Size-Fits-All
There’s a myth that the cloud is one-size-fits-all. Your cloud strategy should be customized to your business, market and size. Without this customization, businesses overlook chances to optimize efficiency, security and cost-effectiveness, thus impeding the full potential of cloud technology. – Christoffer Bouet, Contribe
16. You Should Stick To Your Cloud Provider’s Software Services
I often hear company leaders say that since they are already working with a cloud provider, it would be easiest to obtain other software services from that cloud provider. However, the truth is that by adding more services from the same cloud provider, you’re more likely to get locked in with that provider. Whenever possible, companies should consider third-party services that can be hosted by their chosen cloud providers. – Advait Ruia, SuperTokens, Inc.
17. Cloud-Based SaaS Apps Are Inherently Safe
Cloud-based software as a service apps create tons of value and enable greater efficiency. However, they also introduce a much larger attack surface for a security team to manage. It is critical to invest in the ability to monitor your data in motion between the SaaS apps your company licenses. Doing so will enable the security team to more quickly identify and remediate potential security incidents. – Amir Khayat, Vorlon Inc.
18. Once Migration Is Done, Your Work Is Done
A common myth is that once you’ve migrated to the cloud, there’s minimal effort required to manage it. The reality is different. A business needs to be mindful of whether its use case is suitable for migration to the cloud versus being kept on-premises. Being aware of the costs of operating a cloud workload, keeping it secure, managing cloud security posture management vendors, and maintaining a specialized talent pool are all essential for success. – Kris Lahiri, Egnyte
19. The Cloud Is Free And ‘Just Works’
The cloud requires IT teams and engineers to maintain it to ensure it is continuously working; one cannot just “move to the cloud” and expect things to just miraculously stay up and running. So if a business is considering moving to the cloud or leveraging cloud services, it will also have to invest in building a team of technical personnel to ensure the move provides business value. – Ken Kao, Rad AI
20. Cloud Security Is Solely The Provider’s Responsibility
The myth that cloud security is solely the provider’s responsibility hinders its effective use. In reality, securing cloud data is a shared task. Cloud providers offer robust security, but users must protect their data. Data security posture management enables proactive data protection in the cloud. It involves visibility, classification and control of data access, enabling wiser cloud use. – Ravi Ithal, Normalyze
