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Busting the five myths of cloud computing

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: HP in its new whitepaper tries to shed light on a few myths, which IT fraternity believes to be true. Let us see what they are:

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Myth one: the public cloud is the most inexpensive way to procure IT services

HP agrees 'public cloud is a relatively inexpensive “pay-as-you-use” model', and that the starting price for standard on-demand instances with the Amazon EC2 Web service is less than a dime per hour based on system size, operating system, and locale.

However, delivery from the public cloud is not always the cheapest than that delivered by internal IT.

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'For resources that are needed constantly, enterprises can actually reduce costs by leveraging other cloud models, such as shared

resources delivered via a private cloud. In cases like this, the private cloud actually is more cost-efficient than even the pay-as-you-use public cloud model," says the whitepaper.

Myth two: baby steps in virtualization are the only way to reach the cloud

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Whereas, HP says that virtualization and cloud are mutually exclusive, and that 'virtualized infrastructure is a strong catalyst for the next step', however, it is just one of the ways, or 'just - a step', to begin.

Similar to virtualization, even a private cloud brings tremendous benefits such as reducing IT complexity, significantly lowering IT costs, and enabling a more flexible and agile service delivery.

'Even private cloud automates the underlying provisioning of infrastructure and applications and adds a convenient way for end users to request IT services. A private cloud based on shared pools of resources–resources that can be automatically tapped to meet business needs–can help IT keep up. The private cloud allows IT managers to have complete control over available assets, while adhering to the security standards required both within the cloud and in the data center. The cloud provides the agility needed to automate workflows and reduce human involvement in time-consuming but necessary tasks such as the provisioning of applications."

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Myth three: critical applications do not belong in the cloud

HP points out 'it is one thing to relegate a few servers running test and development jobs to a cloud-based infrastructure. But delivering business applications quickly and efficiently continues to be the most important charter for IT organizations.'

Studies such as a recent one by Forbes show that IT executives are under extreme pressure to:

- Cut infrastructure costs

- Adjust their service levels to meet changing needs

- Deliver applications with greater speed

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IT professionals are interested in cloud computing to help them address all three of these requirements. And the same applies to their business critical applications.

Myth four: all cloud security requirements are created equally

The use of a public cloud service can provide relief from investments in hardware and software, as you pay for service

delivery instead.

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HP points out that many IT executives are unwilling to create a system where their data resides outside of their control. Fearful of the constant growth in attack methodologies, IT executives believe that the private cloud is the answer because it keeps the cloud infrastructure on the premises, inside company firewalls, and under the direct control of the IT group.

However, the whitepaper notes that private cloud model penetrable as 'vulnerabilities exist with a connection to the Internet. There also remains the threat of insider attacks and data theft.'

Myth five: there is only one way to do cloud computing

There are several, infact, such as public and private and hybrid cloud.

'Hybrid cloud is composed of two or more clouds (private, community, or public). These clouds remain unique entities, but they are bound together by standardized technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load-balancing between clouds),' says the whitepaper.

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