CDW, a provider of technology products and services to business,
government, education and health care, announced the results of its
first Cloud Computing Tracking Poll, an assessment of current and
future cloud computing use in business, government, health care and
education based on a survey of 1,200 IT professionals familiar with
their organization’s use of, or plans for, cloud computing. Among
current cloud users, 84 percent said they cut application costs by
moving to the cloud. On average, cloud users report saving 21
percent annually on those applications moved to the cloud.
The survey found 28 percent of U.S. organizations are using cloud
computing today, with most reporting (73 percent) that their first step
into the cloud was implementation of a single cloud application. While
many organizations (84 percent) say they have already employed at least
one cloud application, most do not yet identify themselves as cloud
users who are implementing or maintaining cloud computing. CDW defines
cloud computing as a model for enabling convenient, on-demand access to
a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned.
“Many organizations are carefully – and selectively – moving into
cloud computing, as well they should, because it represents a
significant shift in how computing resources are provided and managed,”
said David Cottingham, senior director of managed services at CDW.
“With thoughtful planning, organizations can realize benefits that
align directly with their organizational goals: consolidated IT
infrastructure, reduced IT energy and capital costs, and ‘anywhere’
access to documents and applications.”
Applications most commonly operated in the cloud are commodity
applications such as email (50 percent of cloud users), file storage
(39 percent), Web and video conferencing (36 and 32 percent,
respectively), and online learning (34 percent). Respondents estimated
that, on average, only 42 percent of their current services and
applications have potential to operate in the cloud.
Even the respondents who identified themselves as cloud users –
currently implementing or maintaining cloud computing – said they
expect to spend no more than one-third of their IT budget (34 percent)
on cloud computing by 2016, and at the same time, to save 31 percent of
their IT budget by using cloud resources and applications.
Non-cloud users said they expect to spend slightly more than
one-quarter of their IT budget (28 percent) on cloud computing by 2016,
and to save 23 percent by using cloud computing resources and
applications.
“The potential to cut costs while maintaining or even enhancing
computing capabilities for end users presents a compelling case for
investment in cloud computing,” Cottingham said. “The fact that even
current cloud users anticipate spending just a third of their IT budget
on cloud computing within five years suggests that before wide-scale
implementation, IT managers are taking a hard look at their IT
governance, architecture, security and other prerequisites for cloud
computing, in order to ensure that their implementations are
successful.”
Cloud Computing 
