Despite the popularity of cloud hosting, there are several misconceptions. These doubts and concerns have been the reason why some people have held back on completely migrating to iSeries hosting. This article shall aim to debunk several myths about cloud hosting.
Cloud is a fad
Cloud computing may be a relatively new term but the concepts, virtualization, and technologies have been developing for more than 30 years. Many businesses have started to invest and adopt cloud technology. Since 2015, enterprises have adopted cloud hosting at an accelerated pace.
Cloud hosting is expensive
It all depends. An old AS400 is years behind the upgraded IBM i/OS400 and if you are looking at current costs, iSeries hosting will never be cheaper than that. However, if you are implementing best practices in your IT infrastructure, backup, business continuity, consolidation and virtualization and if you are updated with your software, cloud computing will be very cost effective. Compared to on-premise server, cloud hosting will be 30 – 70% cheaper.
Data will not be safe in the Cloud
Data stored on an on-premise server is more risky than those stored on the cloud. Most providers of cloud hosting provide more security, stability, and redundancy. Data stored on cloud is secured from top to bottom. It focuses on various issues such as temperature control, round-the-clock monitoring, and controlled and restricted files. There is also economy of scale which makes cloud data more secure.
Cloud has reliability issues
There is no perfect system. There is no system that has 100% uptime and so is the cloud. However, cloud technology is designed to provide high redundancy and availability. While in-house hosting can also achieve high level of redundancy and availability, it is cost prohibitive except for the most critical systems. On the other hand, cloud technology can achieve a high level of reliability for a lower cost.
Cloud Hosting is not fast
Transmission of data from an IBM server is miniscule compared to common web traffic. At most, each 5,250 session transmits 2K which can be less in most cases. Majority of clients use less bandwidth than 1/10 of a T1 line. With IBM’s newest and fastest IBM I Power, clients have seen improved performance.
Cloud is not for mission-critical use.
It is worth noting that cloud is being implemented in steps and in specific cases. Most clients host their mission critical business workloads on cloud servers.
Google and Amazon Can Host My environment
IBM cloud hosting is a niche market and companies like Google and Amazon will not take the iSeries servers into their cloud. However, clouds that do not support IBM can be every expensive so you may want to shop around for the best value.
