CIO Magazine just surveyed 173 IT business leaders to gauge what the common attitudes are towards cloud computing in the enterprise. 58 percent indicated that cloud computing will dramatically change the IT business, and 47 percent said they are already using it. On the other side, 18 percent think that cloud computing is a fad. survey
CIO used the broad definition of cloud computing: “a style of computing where massively scalable IT-related capabilities are provided ‘as a service’ using Internet technologies to multiple external customers”. Other terms used are “on-demand services”, “cloud services”, “Software-as-a-Service”.
The survey confirmed that cloud computing is a solution to the need for flexibility in IT resource management. IT needs flexibility and cost savings, but is unwilling to jump in with both feet until some lingering concerns are addressed: the top concern being security.
Cloud computing will be used in many pilot/proof-of-concept projects by the incumbents, and it will be experimented with as full blown business models by a growing cadre of start-ups. We have described this many times in this blog that the cloud computing model will be driven by the small and medium business segment because they value cost savings over security or SLAs. And typically with technologies that offer dramatic cost savings, when successful, there will be carnage among the companies that are holding on too tightly to old fashioned business models.
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