Cloud Myths Debunked: Is The Cloud Secure And Reliable?

Cloud computing has driven incredible innovation and transformed the IT landscape since it was introduced just over a decade ago. Today, cloud platforms support a huge proportion of online services and business operations. In a recent survey of enterprise IT professionals, 95% of respondents said they use the cloud.

But in spite of the widespread adoption of the cloud — there are still a few stubborn myths about the suitability of the cloud for hosting business data and applications.

I’d like to take a look at a few of these myths to discuss why they are at best outdated and at worst completely wrong.

Myth: The cloud is not secure

This myth is based on a couple of assumptions. First, lots of cloud users share the same underlying physical hardware and that might lead to sensitive data being exposed to other users. Second, because cloud users don’t have control of the physical hardware, there is no way to know whether it is secure or not.

Cloud platforms use virtualization technology that prevents data from leaking from one user to another. Virtualization software is mature, battle tested, and preventing security breaches of this sort is the number one security concern of developers. Over recent years the media has been full of catastrophic data leaks — most caused by lax security practices and none by the technology underlying the cloud.

However, the recently discovered Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities were an issue for all public cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and Steadfast. Flaws in the design of processors used on all modern servers may have allowed a malicious public cloud user to access data from the cloud servers of other users. Responsible cloud providers like Steadfast acted quickly to patch the affected servers, reducing the exposure of their clients, but the data of public cloud users may, in theory, have been exposed to third parties.

Private clouds are much less likely to be affected by Spectre and Meltdown. Because a only one organization can launch servers and run code on a private cloud platform, they are inherently more secure. Private clouds are a good option for workloads involving sensitive data.

Of equal importance is the issue of trust. If you don’t control the underlying hardware and network, can you trust that it is secure? Cloud providers live and die by the security of their platform. Steadfast has been building secure infrastructure platforms for almost 20 years. Our security and engineering teams are among the most knowledgeable and experienced in the industry.

Our cloud platform is more secure than the vast majority of on-premises and colocated hosting options because we have two decades of experience building and managing secure infrastructure platforms for businesses of all sizes.

Myth: The only reason to move to the cloud is to save money

The flexibility of the cloud allows users to take control of infrastructure costs, but the direct cost savings are not the only reason to migrate to the cloud.

Cloud platforms provide unbeatable infrastructure flexibility, agility, and scalability. The ability to create servers on-demand will change the way you think about development, testing, and production. Businesses that use the cloud to its full potential gain a competitive advantage, because they can iterate more quickly, develop more efficiently, and bring improved products to market faster.

Myth: Cloud platforms can’t be customized

The underlying concern is that cloud platforms are a one-size-fits-all solution tailored to the average infrastructure user, not the specific needs of a project. This is a fair criticism of some cloud platforms, but not all.

Unlike most cloud providers, the Steadfast team is happy to work with individual customers to create their perfect infrastructure solution. We will consider your specific situation and build the perfect cloud environment for your business.

Steadfast Simplicity Cloud Services provide a wide variety of server configurations for businesses to choose from, but, more than that, we offer several different types of cloud and custom cloud options. Customers can choose from public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds that bring together a mix of cloud and bare metal server hosting options.

Myth: The cloud is unreliable

It’s easy to build an unreliable cloud platform. There are many unreliable cloud platforms on the market, just as there are many unreliable dedicated server platforms, shared hosting platforms, and virtual private server platforms.

What makes a cloud reliable is the experience, the expertise, and the dedication of the team that builds and manages it. Steadfast Simplicity Cloud Services are managed by our dedicated team of engineers who have been building secure infrastructure solutions for business for almost two decades.

If you want to learn more about how the cloud can help your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free consultation.