Busting 5 Myths About The Cloud

Dispelling the most common misconceptions of cloud computing.

When I was at university, I came up with a genius idea. I would email all my research papers to myself, and then save them in my student email account. That way, they would always be stored in an external environment where I would have access to them at all times via the internet.

Man, oh man, if I had marketed that idea from day one, I would be rollin’ in it! Unfortunately for me I wasn’t the only one to come up with this great concept, which now goes by the name of the cloud. Online cloud storage facilities like Google Drive, Dropbox and our own cloud hosting options are great ways to safely store important files while giving yourself access to them anytime, anywhere.

There are, however, a few myths about this virtual storage capability that need to be dispelled. Read on to see if you know all there is to know about the moniker taken from  Mother Nature herself: the cloud.

My data is stored in an actual cloud, like one made up of tiny water droplets.

This is just not true. In any way. The cloud is merely the word that the tech industry uses to describe anything that is stored virtually – so not “on premises” (on your computer or hard drive) – and can be accessed via the internet.

My data is stored in the sky. That’s where the cloud’s storage facilities are. Because it’s a cloud. Duh. Everyone knows this.

If this were true then your cloud storage facility would also be flown around by a beautiful Pegasus that was fed by fairy dust and children’s dreams. But it’s not true. Your cloud storage is located in large physical data centres at various points around the world, so you can access your data from any global location at any time.

My data is not secure in the cloud.

Now we’re sinking our teeth into some real questions. To say that data in the cloud is not secure could not be further from the truth. The cloud was designed with security as one of its main focuses. Data centres have a dedicated team that watches out for security threats and takes action as soon as anything is amiss. So unless you have a Doberman with laser beams for eyes guarding your hard drive every night, you may need to reconsider just how safe your on-premises data is, and whether it might be safer being looked after by a team of safety experts. To take it a step further, if one of the servers in our own network goes down, the other servers instantly take its place, meaning that your data never misses a beat.

The cloud is expensive.

When you host a good amount of data – or at least more than free cloud accounts will permit – then yes, you’re going to have to pay a monthly bill. But chances are that if you have a solid amount of data that you need to put on the cloud, a big part of your business depends on that data, and more specifically being able to access that data. Now consider the extra agility that you gain by having that data hosted on the cloud. Do you have employees? Now they can have remote access to company data, thus making it possible to work from home, reducing office costs. Do you need to access your data when you are travelling? When you host your data on the cloud, your business’s network instantly expands to a global scale. Anywhere there is internet, there is the cloud; and anywhere there is the cloud with your data, there is a business opportunity waiting to be had..

Putting my data on the cloud is complicated.

This may be true with other cloud hosts, but UK2.net cloud solutions make this process a walk in the park. Take a look around our website to find the perfect cloud solution for you, from SSP VPS to standard cloud hosting.