Safety of data and how service providers are protecting it are major concerns for many companies that are thinking of adopting cloud technologies.
This is according to a cloud computing survey conducted by ITWeb in conjunction with Fujitsu. The survey results were presented by ITWeb's editorial director Ranka Jovanovic at the Virtualisation and Cloud Computing Summit yesterday at the Forum in Bryanston.
“Insufficient bandwidth availability in the country was also raised as a major concern”, Jovanovic said.
Alan Collins, technical architect at T-Systems, who was also a speaker at the conference, added that security concerns will always be there, but for companies to be protected, they should rather go for service providers that provide offshore and local storage of information.
According to Collins, the question is no longer 'if our company is adopting', but everyone is moving to the cloud, whether or not they want to.
“You either go in kicking and screaming or you lead the way to the cloud”, he added.
However, the survey revealed that more organisations in SA believe that cloud computing is not just hype generated by the IT industry and is here to stay.
Compared to last year's 246 valid respondents, the number this year rose to 279 of which 41% say cloud computing can simplify IT.
According to Jovanovic, in 2009 when the survey was first introduced, only 9% of companies said they had already implemented cloud computing. In 2011 the number rose to 22%.
The results also revealed that hybrid model and private cloud are the most preferred with 32% and 29% of companies respectively saying so.
In terms of implementing cloud computing, 78% have deployed cloud in the form of software-as-a-service compared to 43% and 44% who said they are using either platform or infrastructure-as-a-service.
Cloud for everyone
According to the results, SMEs are in a great position to move into the cloud, provided they find the right service provider.
Collins explained that there are two gateways to consider for readiness of the cloud and that is self readiness of the company and business readiness.
“Businesses want flexibility. They want to be able to say 'we want to do it now' and be able to optimise cost at the same time. Cloud is the answer to that”, he stressed.
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