Private and Public Clouds Receive Equal Enterprise Attention

Private Clouds Save CashEvery company is looking to save a little cash-there’s no doubt about that. The new survey results completed and compiled by cluster and cloud software company Platform Computing (http://www.platform.com) indicates as the private cloud computing market comes of age, CIOs and businesses are starting to understand its benefits a bit more, and they are focusing on the cash savings.

Majority of Private Cloud Deployments Focused on BenefitsA full 28 percent of organizations surveyed said they planned to deploy some form of private clouds in 2010.That number remains undiminished from 2009’s results, but increased education and understanding of the cloud marketplace means core drivers and a focus on benefits have shifted.

Organizations Eye Increased Efficiency with Capped Costs Organizations moving to private clouds do so to save money and maximize existing budgets. A total of 27 percent of respondents cited “efficiency” as their main driver while 25 percent cited cost cutting and 17 percent cited resource scalability, all drivers directly influencing corporate spend.

Tinkering with the CloudCombine the buzz around cloud with security concerns, and many companies are still dipping their toes in experimental waters. According to the survey, 19 percent of companies are still looking at “experimenting with the cloud” as their main driver for private cloud deployments.

Cloud bursting Responsiveness (6 percent) and scalability (17 percent) remain a concern and driver for private cloud deployments. Many speculate that cloud bursting – when public clouds are tapped to make up for lack of on-premise resources – solves this problem, but the survey shows that almost 80 percent of companies have no plans to establish that kind of relationship.

Private Cloud BarriersIn 2009, organizational culture was cited as the biggest inhibiting factor for the move to private clouds, but this issue is less of a concern in 2010 (37 percent vs. 26 percent). Instead, executives cite cloud security (26 percent), management (35 percent), licensing (12 percent) and upfront costs (6 percent) as the chief inhibitors.

Demand for Public and Private Clouds Coexist"What’s interesting is that private cloud deployment intent continues to be strong, independent of public cloud intentions. That cost is growing as a business driver while organizational culture becomes less of a barrier, speaks to maturing use cases, pilots and deployments.,” said Randy Clark, CMO at Platform Computing.