Vast Majority of Enterprises Will Deploy Clouds by 2015

The evidence continues to grow that enterprises are convinced that cloud computing is a viable way forward for IT in the future.

IDG Research Services surveyed chief technology officers, chief information officers and IT managers on a global basis and reported that 75 percent of companies either currently employ enterprise-grade cloud computing solutions or plan to implement enterprise-grade cloud during the next five years.

The report, titled "Enterprise-Grade Cloud Computing Adoption: Trends and Purchase Requirements," can be downloaded here.

"This independent study validates the industry notion that enterprises want customizable cloud solutions that go beyond the application level and comprehensively address requirements such as security and service levels," said Bryan Doerr, chief technology officer at Savvis, corporate sponsor of the research project.

The study found that IT usually identifies projects and areas that could benefit from cloud and informs the business. However, 23 percent of the 172 respondents reported that business leaders sometimes bypass IT and purchase solutions on their own.

Other findings:

• 60 percent consider it extremely or very challenging to find the right cloud computing solution for their companies
• 69 percent perceive cloud computing solutions as offering greater flexibility
• 64 percent expect spending on hosted, on-demand and/or cloud-based software at their companies to increase over the next year
• 62 percent rate security as a critical factor when evaluating cloud solutions.

Savvis, which hired IDG to do this research, provides cloud infrastructure and hosted IT solutions for enterprises.

The company’s Symphony platform includes converged cloud network options ranging from public connectivity over Savvis’ Tier 1 IP network backbone to secure, low-latency, quality-of-service-enabled Application Transport Services (ATS), Savvis’ core Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based service.