Although cloud computing has been around for quite a while, there’s a surprising lack of empirical data gauging its impact on business. However, PWC conducted a survey of 489 businesses to try to get a handle on what the future holds for data centers and cloud computing.1
According to a PCW survey, there is growing demand for IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Over three quarters of the organizations surveyed had cloud plans, and just under two-thirds felt that the cloud would be the way to go within the next three years. This isn’t surprising given that cloud enables organizations of any size to scale without incurring operational expense, and many hosting companies offer flexible spending and pay-as-you-go models. These pricing structures put cloud computing within reach for many small and medium businesses.
Although there is a definite trend toward the cloud, it isn’t happening at a breakneck pace. Again referencing the PWC survey, the amount of resources dedicated by organizations to some sort of public or private cloud is only expected to grow by approximately 3% over the next three years. These organizations, however, already have a third of their infrastructure in the cloud. That growth rate doesn’t account for new cloud adoptees, or those yet to adopt the cloud.
And who is providing the cloud infrastructure? For the most part, the survey respondents said that traditional IT outsourcing providers (ITO) are the ones that will shoulder the costs, sparing outsourcing customers the expense, a major draw for both enterprise and SMBs. In addition, pure hosting companies are getting in on the action too. These organizations are faced with having to help their clients manage a mixed cloud and traditional infrastructure and help them determine which kind of cloud – public, private or hybrid – would best meet their customers’ business needs.
So what are the barriers that are keeping enterprise organizations out of the cloud? The number one answer is security. While the respondents overwhelmingly preferred private clouds to public, the reality is that most applications can be safely and securely deployed on public clouds. Only the most sensitive and mission-critical data should be reserved for more costly private clouds. Most organizations will be running a hybrid environment containing both public and private environments.
Given the concern about security, what is the business case for the cloud? The PWC survey brought out several key advantages. First, the cloud enables faster delivery of IT solutions. With applications in the cloud, it’s simple to deploy new software updates, patches and applications in minutes rather than days or weeks to clients attached to the cloud. . Second, as already mentioned, the cloud reduces the total cost for IT departments, removing cap-ex to support new and growing systems or to scale existing systems. Finally, IT department resources can be utilized for more strategic projects rather than routine maintenance.
So who’ll be your hosting provider? Call Hostway today at 877.798.6239 – let one of our experts show you how our cloud solutions provide benefits while simultaneously addressing all your concerns, all at a price point that might surprise you!
1The Future of IT Outsourcing and Cloud Computing, PCW