Few at this point deny the rapid rise of cloud computing. Study after study have shown that a growing number of businesses and other organizations are taking advantage of what the cloud has to offer.
At the recent Interop Las Vegas 2011 conference, performance management firm Network Instruments conducted another survey that polled IT managers and executives about their companies' cloud computing initiatives. In addition to examining the percentage of businesses that have now migrated to the cloud, the survey also polled respondents about their reasons for choosing to deploy cloud computing solutions.
The survey found that approximately 61 percent of respondents' companies now have cloud computing services running on their networks. This, according to Network Instruments, represents an increase of 20 percent from 2010.
Of those who have implemented cloud computing services, approximately half are using Software-as-a-Service, such as Google Apps or Salesforce.com. Approximately 21 percent, meanwhile, said they are utilizing Platform-as-a-Service offerings.
Two key factors driving companies to the cloud seem to be improved application availability and increased scalability. The survey found that approximately 61 percent of respondents felt that their cloud services had improved application availability, while just 4 percent reported a decline in availability.
Additionally, more than half of the respondents said the cloud has made it easier for their companies to scale their applications up or down, in order to meet changing needs of their organizations.
Finally, the survey found that many IT professionals believe the percentage of software applications running in the cloud is set to increase rapidly in the coming years. Based on survey responses, Network Instuments found that respondents expect 38 percent of enterprise applications to be cloud-based by mid-2012, compared to 21 percent now.
As the cloud expands, cloud computing security will become increasingly important for many companies. According to a recent CRN report, recent events, including Amazon's cloud outage, highlight the importance of cloud computing security.
