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Cloud computing is "uniquely susceptible" to myths, Gartner says, due to its nature, confusion and surrounding hype. And this is bad news, as such myths distract from real progress, innovation and outcomes.

"Cloud computing, by its very nature, is uniquely vulnerable to the risks of myths. It is all about capabilities delivered as a service, with a clear boundary between the provider of the service and the consumer," the analyst says. "From a consumer perspective, 'in the cloud' means where the magic happens, where the implementation details are supposed to be hidden. So it should be no surprise that such an environment is rife with myths and misunderstandings."

Thus, in an effort to clear cloud confusion, Gartner lists 10 dangerous and misleading myths:

1. Cloud is always about money: Cloud computing is not always about monetary savings, Gartner says, as some cloud pricing (such as most SaaS) sees stable pricing.
2. You have to be cloud to be good: A manifestation of "cloud washing," there is a mistaken belief that something has to be cloud to be "good," which is not the case.
3. Cloud should be used for everything: Is the cloud applicable to everything? Not really, Gartner insists.
4. "The CEO said so" is a cloud strategy: Many companies do not have a cloud strategy, instead defaulting to doing what the CEO wants. This is no cloud strategy, and organisations need to identify business goals and map potential cloud benefits first.
5. We need one cloud strategy or vendor: Cloud services span multiple levels (IaaS, SaaS), models ("lift and shift," cloud native), scope (internal, external) and application, meaning one cannot standardise on one offering or strategy.
6. Cloud is less secure than on-premises capabilities: A trust issue, this. True, cloud providers need to prove their capabilities, but once they do so there is no reason to believe their offerings are not secure.
7. Cloud is not for mission-critical use: Many organisations use the cloud for mission-critical loads, and some enterprises are "born in the cloud," meaning all their business (including mission-critical loads) is run in the cloud.
8. Cloud = data center: A cloud strategy is not a data center strategy, and most cloud decisions should not be about moving everything to the cloud.
9. Migrating to the cloud means you automatically get all cloud characteristics: Cloud attributes are not transitive, Gartner says, as cloud services are not the same as applications hosted on the cloud.
10. Virtualisation = private cloud: While virtualisation is a commonly used cloud-enabling technology, it is not the only means to implement cloud computing. If anything, it is not even sufficient, and even if used well the end result is not cloud computing.

Go Gartner Highlights Top 10 Cloud Myths