Cloud myths and recommendations

Stephen Withers
Friday, 27 May 2011 09:49

Using a PC to access cloud services while talking up the Green IT benefits is like spruiking your environmental credentials and then going to work in a Hummer instead of riding a bike.

"If you go to the cloud all the way, why do you have that big PC on your desk?" asked Tarkan Maner, president and CEO of Wyse.

That was a loaded question, given that Wyse invented the first thin client device in 1994 and has been making them ever since. But even Maner admitted that it's still not possible to do everything in the cloud.

Still, it is reasonable to ask whether full-blown PCs are needed when cloud applications or a virtual desktop can deliver the functionality required by particular groups of users. PCs cost more than  thin clients, require more management, and need to be replaced more often.

Speaking during a keynote session at the Citrix Synergy 2011 conference, Maner also identified and refuted a number of myths about the cloud.

'It's not reliable, secure or private' - planes are safer than cars, he observed (see also "Cloud insecurity a myth, says Citrix executive"), and similarly clouds can be engineered to meet these requirements. But it is important to manage the relationships involved, he warned.

'It's only for consumers and SMEs' - telcos such as NTT in Japan are already delivering cloud services to enterprise customers.

 

Tarkan Maner, president and CEO of Wyse

Please read on to page two for the rest of Maner's list of myths, and his recommendations for going cloud.