The Cloud Computing Game Is Still Wide Open

As with most new technologies, the school of hard knocks winds up being the best form of education. The channel is adjusting as the cloud comes of age, but some clear trends are emerging. Of 1,150 instances of cloud experimentation or adoption, most organizations, on average, are dealing with three cloud vendors, according to a survey conducted by Enterprise Management Associates on behalf of iLand, a provider of a cloud platform based on VMware technology. The survey of 415 IT professionals found that although there's a strong preference for VMware in the local data center, there is no clear cloud winner just yet. In fact, 25 percent of the respondents said they plan to switch vendors while 60 percent said they intend to add more. For solution providers across the channel, all this means that when it comes to cloud computing it's still early in the game. While a handful of cloud service providers currently dominate the market, IT organizations are far from committed to any particular platform just yet. Best of all, the survey finds that 80 percent of customers need professional services to get started with the cloud. Channel Insider examines key takeaways from the study.