Cost, Security Fears Hampering Cloud Computing Growth

A survey of cloud decision makers at large enterprises in North America found that 52 percent of those polled said that internal change and learning was the leading roadblock to cloud project success, pointing to possible pent-up demand for advisory services, as users struggle with the change brought on by the cloud.

According to the study, conducted by TheInfo Pro, a division of the 451 Group, other project roadblocks included upfront cost (15 percent) and security (13 percent). Cost reduction (68 percent) is the leading justification for implementing cloud services, followed by increased flexibility/scalability (24 percent) and reduced complexity (21 percent), also key drivers toward the cloud.

"The cloud market is at an inflection point right now, and it s critical to understand the opportunities for as well as barriers to adoption and growth," said Ken Male, managing director and founder of TheInfoPro. "In this study, we ve applied TheInfoPro s voice-of-the-customer research methodology, and we ve got the right combination of cloud analysis and underlying data from large IT organizations to give a clear picture of where the cloud market is heading."

A majority (75 percent) of respondents said that they have virtualized their cloud servers. However, few have currently implemented the core management, automation and orchestration functionality, which are all cornerstones to the enablement of truly flexible, agile and cost-effective internal cloud solutions. VMware continues to be the primary vendor selected for cloud-enablement projects. For internal or private IaaS (infrastructure as a service) projects, 37 percent of interviewees said that VMware is their primary cloud-enablement provider.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Cloud Computing Growth Hampered by Cost, Security Concerns: Survey