Open source cloud leads pack

Companies of all sizes view cloud computing as a strategic business opportunity. With the increase in the number of cloud infrastructure providers, businesses are now able to choose from a variety of options to align their cloud strategies with their specific business needs, Market Watch reports.

RightScale, a cloud management company, has announced results of a new market study of more than 600 companies to uncover how businesses are approaching cloud computing and what priorities they set for implementing their cloud strategies.

According to Forbes, among the 64% of respondents who plan to include a private cloud option as part of their cloud portfolio, open source private cloud solutions are taking the lead.

The largest share of cloud adopters, 41%, plan to useonly open source-based private cloud options (CloudStack, OpenStack or Eucalyptus), while another 29% plan to use a combination of open source and VMware options. Another 30% of those respondents plan to use VMware-only based private cloud options.

At least 68% of survey respondents replied that they are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy, while slightly more than half (53%) also said they are pursuing a hybrid strategy of building out a combination of public and private clouds, ZDNet writes.

Among the businesses that plan to use both public and private clouds, 55% are devoting equal resources to public and private cloud efforts. The remainder was split, with 23% admitting they would prioritise their private cloud initiatives, and 22% opted to prioritise their public cloud initiatives.

Thus, this presents a huge opportunity for cloud-solutions providers. What remains to be seen is who will jump on this trend quickly enough.