As cloud technologies continue to mature and be leveraged by enterprises around the world, decision-makers are starting to become more familiar and comfortable with using the solutions to enhance operations at a lower cost. This was confirmed in a recent global study commissioned by NTT Communications and carried out by IDG Research Services.
The survey polled 300 IT executives and found the majority of respondents are highly satisfied with the services provided by cloud computing vendors. In fact, of the 61 percent of respondents who are implementing or testing the cloud, 73 percent said they are happy with the way the technology has enabled greater flexibility. Another 71 percent said they are content with the virtual environment's enhanced scalability.
Despite this peace of mind, many decision-makers are still concerned with using the technology in their organization.
What is holding back cloud computing adoption?
Not surprisingly, the cloud's supposed inability to protect mission-critical information was the primary reason companies have not yet adopted the cloud. The study revealed that 58 percent of respondents cited data security as the main inhibitor to using cloud computing.
A lack of data protection is not the only reason enterprises are ignoring the cloud, however, as 75 percent of respondents said capacity limitations were one of the main reasons for not using a specific service provider's offerings, IDG Research reported. Furthermore, 73 percent of decision-makers said possible downtime when making network configurations was the most detrimental performance issue when evaluating, planning or implementing cloud computing.
Regardless of these concerns, many IT professionals still have high hopes for the cloud. Research revealed roughly 57 percent of respondents expect the cloud to boost performance levels, while 54 percent believe the technology will make mission-critical solutions and data more reliable and accessible. About half of decision-makers also think the cloud is a cost-effective alternative to their current IT services.
The prospect of reducing expenses is a particularly strong driver for the adoption of the cloud and Software-as-a-Service models, according to a separate KPMG report.
"As the current tight economic conditions are felt across the globe, tight IT budgets are pushing demand for cloud computing services," said Steve Watmough, partner in KPMG's CIO advisory team.
The only way to truly overcome any cloud concerns is to plan ahead and implement services backed by strong service-level agreements, robust data protection tools and effective monitoring solutions that can mitigate performance issues.
Cloud Computing News from SimplySecurity.com by Trend Micro
