New survey gauges how IT officials feel about cloud computing

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

According to a recent study of cloud computing decision-makers conducted by TheInfoPro, 52 percent of participants said that internal change and learning was the No. 1 challenge for a successful cloud model.

Of those surveyed, 15 percent indicated up-front cost and 13 percent said security issues are other possible roadblocks.

Issues aside, 68 percent of respondents said reducing costs is the top benefit for adopting the cloud, while 24 percent indicated flexibility/scalability. Also, 21 percent said reducing IT complexity was a top reason to migrate to the cloud, according to the study.Three-fourths of those surveyed revealed their organizations have already virtualized their cloud servers.

"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, founder of TheInfoPro.

As more companies identify cloud computing as beneficial for their operations, spending for public cloud services is expected to more than double. According to research firm Gartner, global public cloud spending is projected reach $89 billion this year and $177 billion by 2015.