The world of cloud computing is evolving rapidly. Businesses want to adopt the cloud should spend more time learning the basics before they plunge themselves into the cloud, for some obvious reasons.
One of the major reasons: The cloud is not “the ultimate” solution for business. Adopting the cloud doesn’t guarantee you that you will ace the competition and be a successful business; it’s not that simple. In fact, some businesses – most undocumented – are actually not doing so well in recouping their investment in the cloud. Such “cloud failures” are undocumented simply because, alas, cloud computing is often a marketing gimmick that only highlight the upsides and fail to put the downsides into light.
That’s why many businesses in the cloud suffer data breaches and other cloud security issues. Reason number one would be cloud vendors only tell part of the story – the good one, that is; reason number two would be the fact that businesses are not doing their due diligence before they decide to adopt the cloud – and doing your due diligence, when it comes to cloud computing, is not an easy task.
Don’t believe me? Let’s have a look at most probably the best definition of cloud computing on the web – you can find it on Wikipedia.
Do you think that cloud computing is simple to comprehend? Think again!
Did you know that the cloud computing article on Wikipedia is continuously updated, adding new explanation while deleting ambiguous explanations. It’s way much better than the last time I checked, explaining the cloud in a more non-techie way – which is good because cloud computing should be understood by the general public, not a group of technicians.
In my early days trying to make sense of cloud computing, it’s difficult to comprehend the difference between the clouds: The Internet is one big cloud; Facebook is in the cloud; Google is in the cloud; checking emails on mobile phones means we are in the cloud – so what’s the cloud anyway? Is it a solution? Is it referring to a particular IT infrastructure? Is it actually an abstract word to describe the nitty-gritty in back end of an IT system?
If you want to dig deeper into the complexity of defining the cloud, check out Wikipedia’s discussion on the cloud computing page – Talk:Cloud Computing
One of the major complaints about the definition of cloud computing in Wikipedia is the fact that it’s not so non-techie-friendly. You need to somehow understand the concept of computing and IT to make sense of cloud computing definitions. The wiki is better right now, but I still find it difficult for non-techie to understand cloud computing better even after reading the Wikipedia article thoroughly.
What the above signify?
Well, if you are a business owner or business decision maker, you need to somehow understand what cloud computing is; how it can help your business, and what are the main challenges the cloud presents your business with. Poorly defined cloud computing will left decision makers with big question marks – and eventually, trusting everything to seem-to-know-all cloud vendors – exposing your crucial data to potential threats if you partner with the wrong cloud vendors.
Not a wise decision. The best route, in my opinion, is to talk with cloud-savvy IT consultant who knows the cloud and what’s inside – and read more credible resources to well-equip you with the basic knowledge of the cloud.
What do you think? Will you trust what your cloud vendors say to you? Will you integrate your business to the cloud based on what others said? Please share your opinion by leaving your comment on this post.
