On a scale of one to 10, CIOs rate South African cloud service providers at a dismal 3.9.
This is one of the preliminary findings from the CIO Cloud Perception Survey 2014, being conducted by TA Consulting in association with ITWeb. The full results will be released at the ITWeb Cloud Computing 2014 conference, to be held in Johannesburg in September.
"We surveyed top CIOs to see what they perceive the cloud to be, and what their view of cloud service providers in South Africa is," says Terry White, research director at TA Consulting. "This low rating would suggest that either these service providers are failing the IT industry in their cloud offerings, or they are not clearly marketing these offerings."
The overall aim of the survey was to explore the potential mismatch between CIO perceptions of the cloud, what it really is, and what vendors are offering as a cloud solution. It followed on from informal feedback in the industry that cloud service providers were not delivering on CIO expectations.
Another preliminary insight, which should be of particular interest to vendors in this space punting price as a differentiator, is that the CIOs who responded to the survey ranked cost savings in the bottom 5% of their requirements. Top of these CIOs' cloud computing wish lists was "innovation", says White.
"Importantly, no CIO mentioned technology when discussing the cloud. All conversations related to the delivery model - pay per use, scalable, available now and good functionality rate high on the CIO agenda," states White.
"There is a mismatch in supplier marketing of the cloud, as they stress the technology, cost and hosting as the key features of their offerings."
White will unpack the research and bust some more cloud computing myths during his presentation at ITWeb Cloud Computing 2014. The early-bird offer expires soon.
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