Cloud Adoption Uneven Across Countries in Europe
October 3, 2011
Last week Friday we looked at two surveys about the scope of cloud acceptance — a survey by CA Associates that found that 93 percent of companies are using the cloud, and another one by SWC Technology Partners that concluded that less than 4 percent of companies are using applications hosted in the cloud. The conclusion was that there is currently a huge split between what different segments of companies are doing. segments. It’s not clear exactly what the parameters are that make up the profile of a cloud-adopter company versus the cloud-abstainer ones, but both the location and size of company seem to play a significant factor…
A number of other recent surveys continue to highlight the uneven acceptance of cloud computing. Compare the following two cloud adoption reports, one surveying usage in the UK, and the other in Norway.
Cisco’s 2011 CloudWatch report on cloud adoption in the UK found that only 7 percent of companies in the US are using the cloud. That number is expected to expand to 23 percent in two years time. But Ian Foddering, CTO and technical director at Cisco UK and Ireland, thinks that part of the reason why the adoption rate appears low is that people are just not aware that they’re using the cloud. ”People don’t even realize they’re consuming cloud-based services [even when they use software like Salesforce.com or Cisco WebEx].”
The Cisco report also cited another possible reason why companies in the UK have been slow to move on cloud computing: lack of standards. 95 percent of companies said that the lack of common cloud standards is a major concern, and 65 percent said that cloud standards were critical. But again, not all companies share the same perspective. Foddering said that ”some vertical sectors are very concerned about the lack of standards, and some, like healthcare, see the lack of standards as a barrier to entry, while some service providers, don’t see it as a factor at all.”
But then consider a report from Rammboll which surveyed cloud adoption in Norway. The report found that over the last year the use of cloud computing has doubled. Now more than 35% of public sector bodies and private sector companies are using cloud-based application, compared to just 14% from the previous year. The Rammboll report found that in Norway the main concern about cloud computing is security. Security was cited by 91 percent of public sector companies and 83 percent of private companies as their number one worry.
Terje Mjøs, one of the authors of the report on Norway, said that “suppliers of cloud computing must be able to reassure their customers that the supplier has the expertise needed to use software and virtualisation to establish watertight walls between different businesses in the cloud, and that the supplier can implement user management and access control that is 100% reliable. Users want to be reassured that cloud computing is secure and reliable. Storms in the cloud will keep users indoors, where they are today.”