Myths and Facts About the Mysterious 'Cloud'

Our names are Tom Mitt, founder, and Jake Polzin, president of TBG Technologies, an IT support company since 2004.

Unless you are living in a cave, you’ve heard of “The Cloud.” It’s a hot subject in the technology world. And since no one is immune from technology (at least not in this country), everyone hears about the cloud.

In fact, it has been talked about so much that I can safely label it a “fad”. But do you know what it really is? Can you believe everything you’ve heard?

Microsoft had an ad campaign pushing the cloud as the solution to all sorts of data problems. Weather predictions are better, cancer research gets faster, and families can share their portraits in seconds. In short, the cloud is a magic genie that makes life better in ways we could only dream about before.

Hype? Nonsense? Or is this real? Like most things, the truth is something in between. Our focus, as always, is the very small company with anywhere from 1 to 25 users. That means we are going to skip the big-company features that just don’t fit with small firms.

Fact #1 - What is the cloud?

The Cloud is simply a marketing term for the internet. That’s it. Nothing more complicated than that. We call it the cloud because that conjures up an image of something that is out there but that has no fixed shape and structure. If we called it “The Box” or “The Magic Toaster” it would be the same thing. It is just out there, ready and waiting for you to use it.

Myth #1 - The cloud is a new thing!

The cloud has been around since the internet was born, back in the early 90’s. We could argue that it was born long before that, when small computers, called “microcomputers” at the time, were able to connect to other computers through a phone line. Remember phone modems?

Myth #2 The cloud is a substitute for backups

We hear this a lot, and it is very dangerous. If you are using the cloud, you still need to back up your data. Imagine your data is stored on a server in your office. Now imagine that you connect a long cable to that server and move it to the next office. Now imagine that server is on a very long cable, and you’ve moved it to California. Would you still need backups? Of course, you would. That’s basically the same as the cloud. If your data is in the cloud, you absolutely must have a backup of it somewhere. That backup can be in the cloud, or it can be in your office. Doesn’t matter.

Myth #3 The cloud is not secure

This one is a little tricky. It might be true, and it might not be. If you think about that server you’ve moved to California with that long cable and think about security, you begin to see what we mean. If you are storing very sensitive, confidential data, you should make sure that it is encrypted. This is especially true if you are subject to government rules on privacy – rules like HIPAA. Even if you are not subject to HIPAA rules, you might want to consider encryption. Check with your IT support provider.

The cloud is transforming the world because it makes many things possible that were previously not available to the very small business. That will be the subject of another article in this series.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be posting educational information so you’re able to become the best business owner you can be. We’ll touch on backups, anti-virus, internet safety, cyber-attacks, ransomware, the cloud, email safety, VOIP phone systems, and others.

Tom Mitt is the founder and Jake Polzin is the president of TBG Technologies, located at 11300 W. Greenfield Avenue, West Allis, Wis. 53214. Tom can be reached at toomas@tbgtechnologies.com and Jake can be reached at jake@tbgtechnologies.com. www.tbgtechnologies.com We Make Technology Behave.