Businesses lack bandwidth for the cloud

Grazed from ComputerWorld.  Author: Antony Savvas.

Only one-in-ten companies are currently deploying cloud computing technologies, mainly because of network bandwidth concerns, research has found.

The news comes in spite of companies stating that seven-in-ten of their staff want access to cloud-based software…

According to research, from Virgin Media Business, there is a huge disconnect between employers and workers when it comes to cloud computing technologies in the workplace. In a survey of 1,000 office workers, 69 percent said they would like to access all the software they use in the office through a web browser from any location or device.

Office workers "were confident" that their businesses will be able to meet these expectations, eventually. The survey found 78 percent believed that in ten years’ time they’ll be able to access all of their applications over the web from outside the office.

But in spite of workers buying into the benefits of cloud computing, many businesses are being slow to adopt, expressing concerns over internet connectivity.

In a separate survey of 5,000 business owners, 88 percent have yet to deploy cloud-based applications within their company. The key concern is whether their network infrastructure is up to task.

According to the research 22 percent of business owners said they "were not comfortable" with using applications via the internet, and 20 percent worried about the reliability of their internet connection. In addition, 21 percent were concerned about how much bandwidth cloud-based applications will use up.

Mark Heraghty, managing director of Virgin Media Business, said: "A fast, secure and reliable internet connection is crucial to support an increasingly dispersed and mobile workforce."

Other recent research found that only one-in-ten IT directors believed the bandwidth at their disposal was sufficient for migrating data and applications into the cloud.