Is the cloud living up to CIO expectations?
October 26, 2011
Is the cloud living up to CIO & CTO expectations? There has been a lot of speculation about what top computing experts think of the cloud and its advantages.
To clear things up, Logicalis, an international provider of integrated information and communications technology solutions and services, analyzed more than 35,000 online forum and social media posts from CIOs and CTOs over the past 60 days, and found their comments to be overwhelmingly in favor of cloud computing. “Positive” and “very positive” comments outweighed “negative” and “very negative” comments by a dramatic 23:1…
“The majority of these cloud conversations were held on tech-centered message boards and forums, followed closely by Twitter and industry blogs,” says Lisa Dreher, vice president of marketing and business development for Logicalis.
Where the cloud market is going
“That means, we went to the very places that CIOs and CTOs are having open, frank conversations to find out what they really think about the cloud. Knowing how CIOs and CTOs view the cloud can help us shape our cloud offerings in a way that works well for them. This data also gives us a direct line-of-sight into the point of view of IT leaders on the cloud market and where it is going.”
Nearly all of the comments were a combination of neutral and factual critiques delivered by C-level IT pros that offered real substance into the general acceptance of the cloud by key decision makers; terms like “CEO,” “enterprise” and “executive” were among the most frequently used in the conversations, indicating higher level organizational conversations are taking place.
Positive posts cited cloud computing as “cost effective,” a means of increasing capacity beyond a current IT environment and an effective way to free up internal staff, resources and budget. Negative posts included concerns about the difficulty of transitioning and managing applications in the cloud as well as the perceived legal, regulatory and business risks associated with the cloud.
“We’re encouraged to confirm what we have heard from our own customers – that CIOs and CTOs are finding their forays into the cloud to be a significantly positive experience,” says Mike Martin, vice president of cloud solutions for Logicalis.
“Moving into the cloud is not an easy decision at the enterprise level, and it’s important that CIOs and CTOs carefully assess the kinds of data they move into the cloud, the regulatory requirements for that data, and work with their cloud provider’s auditors and legal teams to outline a plan for how their specific data will be managed and protected.
“When a solution provider offers that level of support, the decision to move into the cloud – be it public, private or a hybrid solution – will be that much easier for the client.”