What Small Businesses Get Wrong About ‘The Cloud’

“The cloud” gets sold as cheaper, safer, and simpler. For many UK SMEs, that promise is only partly true. Most problems come from assumptions — not from the cloud itself.

Myth #1: The cloud is a backup

Cloud storage and SaaS platforms (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) are not backups. They are live systems. If data is deleted, overwritten, or encrypted by malware, it can sync everywhere.

• Sync ≠ backup
• Retention policies are not full disaster recovery
• Backups should be independent and tested

Myth #2: The cloud is secure by default

Cloud platforms provide strong security tooling — but most breaches happen due to configuration, weak access controls, or poor operational hygiene.

• MFA and access policies must be enforced
• Shared links and permissions need governance
• Logging and alerting must be enabled and reviewed

Myth #3: The cloud is always cheaper

Entry-level pricing looks attractive, but costs grow with add-ons (security, archiving, backup), user sprawl, and unmanaged licences.

• Licensing creep is common
• Security features often cost extra
• Support and recovery time still cost money

Myth #4: The cloud never goes down

Major platforms are resilient, but outages still happen — and SMEs are affected by local factors like ISP issues, DNS changes, and expired certificates.

• Internet dependency increases single points of failure
• Regional incidents and provider outages do occur
• Local configuration errors cause “cloud downtime”

What the cloud is actually good at

• Rapid onboarding and scalability
• Remote and hybrid working
• Reduced on-premise hardware management
• Predictable base costs (when licences are managed)

A simple cloud sanity checklist for SMEs

• Independent backups for critical cloud data
• MFA everywhere for user access
• Licence reviews every quarter
• Access reviews for shared folders and links
• Basic monitoring for availability and auth issues