Infrastructure-as-a-Service Adoption Growing, Report Finds

Software as a service’s younger sibling just got an ego boost,
according to a report from IT research firm Yankee Group. A company
survey found 24 percent of large enterprises with cloud experience are
already using IAAS (infrastructure as a service), and an additional 37 percent expect to adopt IAAS
during the next 24 months. Yankee Group analysts noted that although
adoption is still much slower than that of SAAS solutions, the market
is gaining traction.

“Is IAAS Moving Beyond Just Cloud Fluff?”, a report based on Yankee
Group’s Anywhere Enterprise: 2010 U.S. Cloud Computing FastView Survey,
uncovered adoption trends for this pay-as-you-go infrastructure
solution. The survey probed more than 400 U.S. IT decision-makers and
included 53 questions focused on these companies’ plans for cloud
computing.

Yankee Group defines IAAS as a pool of shared computing resources,
including servers and storage, that are available and scalable on
demand. These resources can be provided in a shared, public
multitenanted or dedicated private basis. The report examines IAAS
adoption by enterprises and identifies the key requirements for future
growth.

The survey found expedited adoption is one of the drivers of the
IAAS market, with 60 percent of enterprises considering IAAS in the
next 24 months actually planning to implement it in the next 12 months.
The No. 1 barrier for enterprises considering IAAS adoption is
virtualization security, but those that have already deployed IAAS rank
regulatory compliance, data migration, reliability, employee use and
quantitative benefits higher, the survey found.

The presence of preferred partners also plays a role in the growing
adoption of IAAS, the survey found. Though the majority of all cloud
adopters view systems integrators as their most trusted partners for
cloud computing (29 percent), IAAS early adopters said telecom
companies are best positioned for cloud services (33 percent).

“The desire to adopt is there, but IAAS solutions and providers
still have some barriers to address,” said Sandra Palumbo, Yankee Group
research fellow and author of the report. “As adoption plans begin to
mount, the time is now for service providers, systems integrators and
others to solidify their solutions and address the lingering concerns
around the cloud.”