Corporate Data and Public Cloud

by   |  2 min read
Published :

For all practical purposes, one can say that cloud computing is now a mature technology. Its adoption is going as strong as ever, the number of players in the market is increasing, and more and more companies are discovering the benefits of inexpensive computing capacity. Great as all this sounds, the true potential of cloud is still not being realized, and the reason is corporate data.

Handling sensitive data

Most of the enterprises still feel that their business data is too valuable to be put in the cloud. They worry about potential network compromises and data theft, as well as unsettling thoughts of data coming under government scanner. So instead, they choose to maintain all the databases the traditional, “safe” way, and put only a small component of their resources out in the cloud. Another approach becoming popular is private cloud, where the company believes, mistakenly, that it is practicing cloud computing.

Cloud and corporate data

But let’s not get deceived into thinking that cloud computing was invented as a cheaper storage or processing alternative only. One of its most important applications is big data, which frankly is not happening if enterprises insist on storing the data on premise. As for private cloud, that is nothing more than a false sense of complacency, because cloud computing is all about potentially infinite resources, which is impossible for a single company to maintain.

True business insights will only come when all your data resides in the cloud and can be processed by specialized analytics software. As for the potential dangers involved, that’s like worrying about a one-in-a-million event, and by comparison even an on-premise setup is no safer.