Part of the premise and promise of cloud computing is that organizations can deploy a system much more cheaply and manage it much more simply than if buying their own hardware and running their own data center. The conventional wisdom of cloud computing suggests building on free software, paying for storage and computing power as you go.
The cost of entry into cloud computing is certainly cheaper than buying a mainframe or building a data center. You can spin up and provision a new server quickly: as such, this buying model makes sense for start-ups whose VC funding gives them a finite runway. However, those monthly cloud hosting bills add up.
And when it comes down to it, cloud computing requires you to entrust your critical business data to your cloud vendor. Your business data is not actually stored in some mythical “cloud.” With that model, you store your data on somebody else’s servers, somebody else’s IT infrastructure. Your valuable business data—all your customer information, accounts receivables, accounting information, employee records—resides on servers that are only partially in your control. This is not suitable for the mission-critical needs of large organizations.
Organizations that don’t want the hassle of maintaining their own IT infrastructure are increasingly common. Outsourcing does have many benefits, but there are also major risks associated with outsourcing key parts of your business. Mainframes are best suited for managing the data intensive needs of large organizations, and are better equipped to handle some of the key features a cloud infrastructure must offer such as scalability, clustering of resources, security, and metering usage.
The mainframe will certainly cost more to buy and implement. However, when taking into account floor space, power needs, manpower, and the sheer number of servers required to match the computing power of a mainframe, the upfront cost difference is less substantial, and the mainframe hardware may turn out to be a better deal over a few years of constant use. Even a public cloud solution like Amazon Web Services that may seem cheap on day one will quickly add up, especially as your systems scale up and if you match capacity with what a mainframe can do.
Mainframes may very well be the best hardware platform for cloud computing. A mainframe, combined with the security features like ASPG’s data encryption programs and user management solutions, presents a compelling case for powering your organization’s cloud with the mainframe at the center.
For a long time, the common assumption was that the mainframe was in decline. Its death has long been heralded. But it has endured as a platform. Although cloud computing is able to replicate many of the benefits of a mainframe, it has not been able to surpass it in any meaningful way.
If your organization’s mainframe powers your company cloud, you’ll want to make sure the data stored on it, processed on it, and passing through it is secured through strong cloud data encryption and the kind of data security tools that will ensure your organization’s most valuable information assets are secure.
If your organization is storing sensitive data in the cloud on someone else’s servers, you should take additional precautions to be certain to use data encryption that renders the data inaccessible to the cloud provider. MegaCryption provides the tools to control the security of files and databases stored and processed in the cloud. If you’re looking for a better data encryption solution to protect your cloud data, or if you’re planning on moving your data to the cloud, sign up for a free trial of MegaCryption to learn how it can provide you with full control over your data security, even when the data resides in a remote cloud.
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