Executive Brief
Debunking Cloud Software’s
Biggest Myths
There is no denying that cloud computing is one of
the hottest trends in the tech industry. While incredibly
popular, the cloud is still fairly new. The move from
“old school” on premise computing to the “new school”
cloud is a significant shift that naturally comes with
a certain amount of anxiety and uncertainty.
Let’s start by reminding ourselves of the significant advantages the cloud offers, it:
• Enables businesses to focus on their core competency • Enables rapid time to benefit
• Empowers individual business units
• Simplifies technology decisions with sand boxes, preconfigured environments and the elimination
• Allows companies to control costs with “pay as they grow” or “pay for usage” plans
• Lets a contact center easily increase or decrease the number of agents supported
Despite these benefits, technology buyers continue to have concerns about the cloud. We’ll call these concerns myths, because they are based more on hearsay rather than fact, and in this eBook we will
Frankly, concerns about cloud security are no more valid than concerns about
on premise security. Software providers that deliver solutions via the cloud
have a vested interest in keeping the service highly secure. Unlike a single
organization where security is part of one IT professional’s job, most cloud
software companies have a team of security experts whose core competency
and day-to-day job is ensuring a secure cloud environment. Typically, a cloud
software vendor applies more effort and resources to security than any one
single organization.
Myth 1:
The cloud is not secure.
Security in the cloud has increasingly become more sophisticated. Most reputable cloud vendors use hard-ware that resides in security patrolled, disaster-proof data centers. Today, cloud vendors take advantage of multi-threaded distributed intrusion detection models, security information and event management systems and distributed application firewalls. We’ve also seen a proliferation of cloud security industry standards and certifications, such as the Cloud Security Alliance’s (CSA) Security, Trust & Assurance registry that encourages
transparency of security practices among cloud vendors. In addition, the Service Organization Control (SOC) 1, 2 & 3 audit standards for data centers and the CSA developed the Cloud Control Matrix, a set of security controls.
Security threats in the cloud are no greater, and in many cases much less common, than those faced by on-premise systems.
The truth is actually just the opposite; one single organization is less likely to
be able to scale more than a cloud software vendor. When delivering software
in the cloud, the concept of economies of scale is key, so most cloud vendors
build their solutions from the ground up with an innate ability to scale. In the
contact center world this becomes particularly relevant, as contact centers often
need to quickly ramp agents up and down for different seasons or campaigns.
Myth 2:
The cloud cannot scale
for large enterprises.
Consider how the scalability of the cloud is analogous to that of a power grid. In the mid-1800s during the industrial revolution, the electricity used to light factories was limited to specific cities and in many cases was unreliable and costly. Most businesses invested heavily in building their own power plants, which were expensive and required experts to operate. The emergence of the power grid created a vastly
more efficient paradigm—individuals, communities and industries now had access to affordable, scalable and reliable energy giving them more time to focus on their business. Cloud computing is the same; cloud software providers can deliver robust, enterprise applications as a service which is affordable, scalable and reliable.
“The job of IT is changing, it’s now our job to solve issues like: How do we share
data? Are we going to plumb the voice and the data together? When we buy
another application or another group wants to join how will that work?”
Fortune 500 Company IT Director
Myth 3:
The cloud will replace IT.
As noted in this Forbes article, “The problem with the equation cloud computing = IT job losses is that it’s a gross oversimplification.” As more and more organiza-tions deploy cloud soluorganiza-tions, IT plays the critical role of understanding the overall enterprise strategy and takes responsibility for bringing together a myriad of cloud solutions. IT can help a company realize the full value of the cloud across the entire organization without the
burden of day-to-day application management. In fact, the role of the enterprise architect is quickly becoming the most important IT staff job. The enterprise architect is responsible for the integration of virtualized IT envi-ronments and requires not only significant technical skills but also strong business communication skills.
The idea that software in the cloud is not customizable is one that has
been perpetuated by on premise software vendors and is simply false. In
fact, software in the cloud can absolutely be modified to meet a particular
organizations needs and in many cases it is less expensive to accomplish than
with on premise software.
Myth 4:
The cloud can’t be
customized.
Open APIs enable cloud vendors to deliver low-cost customization options to customers. Most cloud soft-ware providers also offer tools that enable custom fields, tables, screens and reporting. Similar to other
cloud software vendors, the Five9 cloud contact center solution is the same basic offering for all of our clients. However, we provide the ability to customize each instance based on a specific client’s needs.
