Enterprise Adoption of Private Clouds Is Widespread And Accelerating

Adoption of cloud computing has been much broader than has been suggested by previous research, and shows accelerating momentum behind developing private cloud infrastructures, new research reveals. Cloud computing, both public and private, will be an increasing part of the mix of resources deployed by enterprise IT organizations, and that companies are particularly interested in simplifying management across their integrated physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Cloud adoption is a focus for many enterprise organizations. But the question remains, what is the best way to leverage the power of cloud computing, maximizing efficiency gains and cost savings while minimizing risk?  Seventy-seven percent report using some form of cloud computing today, much higher than previously reported.

Other key findings tied to cloud adoption include:

-- Private clouds are the next logical step for organizations already implementing virtualization, according to 89 percent of the respondents.

-- 34 percent are using a mixed approach of private and public cloud computing, with 43 percent planning to increase their use of the combined approach.

-- 87 percent believe public cloud computing adoption will occur alongside of, instead of replacing, company-owned data centers, with 92 percent indicating an increase in public cloud use as current IT platforms are replaced.

-- 31 percent find that a key benefit to private cloud computing is the ability to manage a heterogeneous infrastructure.

Security is a leading barrier to cloud computing adoption, with 83 percent feeling private cloud computing offers most of the advantages of public cloud computing (freedom from maintaining hardware, lower cost upkeep, resource scalability, lower initial costs) without the security and compliance issues of the public cloud.

Additional findings include:

-- Ninety-one percent are concerned about security issues in the public cloud, with 50 percent indicating security as the primary barrier to implementation.

-- Eighty-six percent believe data is more secure in a private cloud.

-- Seventy-six percent of those surveyed feel outside vendors are not as diligent about data security as internal IT departments.

-- Difficulty maintaining regulatory policy compliance in the public cloud versus that of the private cloud was an issue for 81 percent of respondents.

Comment from Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager of Security, Management and Operating Platforms at Novell: The survey results are telling. The path to public cloud computing needs to begin with the private cloud, learning to leverage the public cloud within the safety of the enterprise network. Despite these concerns, enterprises are moving forward with cloud computing - whether in a private cloud, public cloud or in a hybrid cloud environment.

About the survey: Novell sponsored the Harris Interactive survey of more than 200 IT leaders, primarily IT director and above, at large enterprises organizations (2,500-20,000+ employees).

Contact: http://www.novell.com/private-cloud-survey