The amount of hogwash out there in the cloud computing space is beginning to backfire. I've been talking to many people who just got off the phone with their large enterprise software provider, now selling private clouds, which told them a half a dozen things that just are not true.
I'm not pushing back on private clouds, mind you, but I am concerned about the FUD approach to selling it. Private clouds are fit for certain problem domains, and public clouds are a fit for others. However, you need to approach the decision with correct information.
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So that you don't get fooled and waste countless dollars and hours pursuing a silly private cloud strategy egged on by self-interested vendors, here are the top three vendor-created myths that need to be dispelled.
Private cloud myth 1: It's illegal to use a public cloud in your industry, so you need a private cloud
Although there are compliance issues around how personal medical information and financial information are stored and secured, these rules do not extend to all enterprise data. Moreover, in many cases the public cloud providers understand how to adhere to these rules and regulations -- for example, by allowing the cloud user to specify where data will reside, as well as the required audit and security mechanisms.
Private cloud myth 2: Hybrid clouds will provide you with a way to move to a private cloud, and then easily to the public cloud
You won't be able to follow that path without a lot of work, money, and risk. The fact of the matter is that when you localize applications and data in public and/or private clouds, it's no easy task to move them between private and public clouds. If you follow this vendor strategy, you'll have to port twice if a public cloud is your final destination -- and there are no common or standard ways of doing this yet.
Private cloud myth 3: Public clouds are not reliable
Although there have been some well-publicized outages, typically regional, public clouds are by and large are more reliable then most enterprise IT infrastructure. The cloud providers focus more on redundancy and do a better job in monitoring their service, so they have better uptime than private systems.
This article, "Exposed: 3 bogus myths about the private cloud," originally appeared at InfoWorld.com. Read more of David Linthicum's Cloud Computing blog and follow the latest developments in cloud computing at InfoWorld.com.