Report: Companies are positive regarding cloud computing, but remaining cautious
Friday, July 30, 2010
Businesses in general continue to have a positive attitude towards
cloud computing; however, most are restricting its use to low-risk tasks, reveals a survey conducted by TPI.
The report showed that among the 140 companies polled, four out of five have considered cloud computing, whereas three out of five were actually implementing it. Nevertheless, many companies remain wary of the concept.
"They aren't convinced that these [
cloud] services are ready for the prime time requirements of their core operations," Kevin Smilie, head of TPI's cloud computing business solutions said. "They are testing non-critical portions of their infrastructure to learn about
cloud services and their own management of them while limiting their operational risks."
Smilie pointed out that vertical industry applications, such as medical billing software and airline reservation systems, are too important for clients to take to market so early in the development of cloud computing.
The survey respondents had four main concerns regarding cloud computing - inadequate or unclear data security, regulatory compliance requirements, business continuity or disaster recovery issues and integration with legacy systems.
The report stated that large enterprises have different service and security demands than consumers, and their needs are not met in the public cloud space. As a response, vendors have begun to offer private clouds designed to meet the demand of these IT buyers.
