The Cloud Computing Caucus Advisory Group hosts “Hillversations” to discuss cloud computing issues with industry experts and develop resources to ultimately educate the public and members of Congress in these matters. Gartner Research Director Katell Thielemann was a key speaker at the gathering earlier this week.

Getting “the cloud” right

Addressing federal employees, Theilmann attempted to dispel five massive misconceptions about the concept once and for all. The quintessence of her talk was:

• putting the cloud label on anything even remotely tied to computers creates confusuion and leads to “cloud-washing” (deceptively rebranding an old service by associating the apparently fancy IT term with it).
• security is allegedly a big problem with cloud services (which leads to “box-hugging”) but actually it helps strengthen it.
• cloud is not all about technology; it has taken on a cultural aspect as well.
• transitioning to the cloud is less about saving money, and more about “scalability” and “agility” (throw in “performance” and you’ve just solved the 4PSA riddle).
• and finally, using “cloud first” as a strategy is a bad idea; cloud deployment requires investigating the needs first, said Thielemann.

Of these five, two key points stuck with me. The first one was how to properly use the actual term when you’re talking to people. Of this, Thielemann said that many agencies today call just about everything they tend to do ‘cloud.’ Vendors aren’t any better either, she added. Many of those call what they do ‘cloud’ even though their product isn’t in the same ballpark. So be careful out there when someone pitches you a product like this.

The second point Thielemann made – the one about security – is also the second point I wanted to highlight from her talk. I’m not an IT guru or anything, but it’s clear to me that cloud computing actually helps beef up security, rather than compromise it. The reason? He who sells cloud services has a responsibility and a financial incentive to secure that data. You don’t need any more stimulus than that.