Technologies do not stand still, and today you will not surprise anyone with the expression “cloud infrastructure”. In addition to the fact that every year more and more companies use cloud services, and sometimes you can’t keep up with the development of various IT tools, there are still a large number of people who believe that cloud usage scenarios are not suitable for their work or for the organization as a whole.
Our company is an active user of cloud services, but we will not dispute the previous opinion, because sometimes there are real reasons why it is not possible to consider clouds. But there are also cases when users are not sufficiently informed about the capabilities of cloud services, or are faced with various misinformation that instills fears about cloud solutions.
The purpose of this article is to talk about the most common misconceptions and the main advantages of using cloud-based infrastructure and services.
Myth 1. Your own website development service infrastructure is more secure than the cloud
If we say that the ground infrastructure is better protected, it is important to note that all security tasks fall entirely on the shoulders of engineers. Protection can be divided into corporate data security and physical operability of equipment. Engineers must be well versed in security policies, assess and prevent possible risks (for example, monitor that the user does not install any malware on their own), know about various cyber threats and prevent them from penetrating the company's system.
Speaking about protecting the operability of equipment, engineers must constantly comply with many conditions, for example: ensure that outsiders cannot access the equipment, comply with the requirements of the indoor climate control system, monitor and prevent excessive equipment load, etc. In other words, engineers must independently adapt the infrastructure to all possible vulnerabilities.
We should not forget about the human factor, which is sometimes simply impossible to predict.
Let's take an example : on the first floor of company N there was a room where server equipment was located, the operability of which was closely monitored by employees. On the second floor there was a room of another organization. One winter day, an employee of an organization located one floor above, leaving home, forgot to close the window. The temperature outside was about -30 and this happened before the holiday on February 23. As a result, the window was open at low temperatures for about three days, which led to the breakdown of batteries and, as a result, flooding of the room with the organization's equipment on the first floor. This incident affected not only the performance of company N, but also subsequently its clients.
As for the cloud, the performance of the infrastructure and its security are ensured by the provider of the selected service. But this does not relieve the administrator of all responsibility, since one wrong decision (for example, opening RDP to the Internet for testing purposes and forgetting about it) can put the infrastructure at risk despite all the efforts of the provider. Security policies allow you to organize protection in accordance with the standards used.
Let's take an example of how security is ensured in Microsoft data centers: the company designs, builds and manages hundreds of its data centers located in different countries around the world, taking into account possible natural disasters, environmental catastrophes and hacker attacks. Microsoft invests billions of dollars in the security of online services and applications, strictly controls any unauthorized access to your data. The company offers reliable and modern technologies for ensuring enterprise information security, aimed at protection both in the cloud and on the ground.