NEW YORK, N.Y., Feb. 5 – TheInfoPro, a service of 451 Research, released its latest Cloud Computing Study, indicating that 47% percent of those interviewed had internal cloud projects planned for 2013. Conducted during the second half of 2012, TheInfoPro study identifies major initiatives and explores several fundamental areas, including implementation plans for more than 12 technologies, macro IT influences transforming the sector, drivers of cloud adoption, and provider-selection criteria. This annual study is based on extensive live interviews with primary decision-makers at large and midsize enterprises in North America and Europe.

Mr. ffoulkes said key trends from TheInfoPro Cloud Computing study include:

• The Cloud has really become a proxy for internal transformation, as adoption of technologies like virtualization and efforts to radically standardize and consolidate have all been classified as ‘cloud’ initiatives.
• In 2013 we expect that enterprises will remain focused on building internal environments that mimic the functionality of highly efficient cloud service providers like Amazon (for example). Results of our Wave 4 survey validate this assumption, as 47% percent of those interviewed said that the internal cloud was amongst their top-two cloud related projects in 2013.
• Despite conventional wisdom, many enterprises remain skeptical as to whether they can actually save money by using the public cloud. Many of the organizations that we spoke to have more clarity about the potential cost savings of their internal private cloud initiatives. End-users expect greater savings from their internal cloud efforts, with 36% expecting savings of between 1% and 10% from their internal cloud efforts, and that much of the expected savings will come as a result of increased automation.
• The majority of enterprises remain in the initial stages of their internal transformation. 64% percent of those interviewed indicated that they remain in the initial phases – standardization, consolidation and virtualization – of the internal cloud journey with 61% in the virtualization phase.
• 47% of those interviewed told us that they are facing significant roadblocks in their quest to move beyond virtualization toward automation, 34% cited non-technical issues (organization / budget, People / Time and Buy-In / Resistance to Change) and 13% said technology issues would likely thwart their efforts.
• The market for cloud platforms today is small – of those responding to our survey, only 26% said they currently are using a cloud platform. However, the future looks bright, as 40% of respondents said they are in-pilot and will deploy in the next 18 months.
• Amazon remains the clear leader in the IaaS space. When asked to identify their existing cloud service providers, 19% of respondents chose Amazon, while 8% chose Verizon and 5% Rackspace. The opportunity to participate in a rapidly growing market coupled with the necessity of defending existing markets, has brought in competitors from a variety of market segments including telecommunications, Internet infrastructure providers (e.g. Amazon and Google) and traditional hosters.

"The Digital Infrastructure of the future will provide CIOs with an assortment of service delivery venues, which will enable users to schedule or automate the delivery of workloads to the most suitable internal or external clouds depending on workload characteristics, SLAs and policy requirements,” said Peter ffoulkes, TheInfoPro's Research Director for Cloud Computing. "As IT organizations complete their infrastructure virtualization and automation projects and turn toward cloud initiatives, there will be significant upside opportunity for a veritable host of cloud service and cloud enabling technology vendors over the next two years.”

Research Director Peter ffoulkes will host a 451 Research Innovation webinar on February 14th to discuss the report’s findings.

Webinar Details:

• Title: The State of Cloud Computing in 2013
• Date: February 14, 2013
• Time: 2 pm ET
• Presenters: Peter ffoulkes, Research Director, Servers & Virtualization and Cloud Computing
• Registration: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/370508457

About TheInfoPro Cloud Computing Study

TheInfoPro’s Cloud Computing Study relies on a proprietary network of IT professionals and is based on in-depth interviews with 100 information technology professionals conducted from July 2012 through October 2012. TheInfoPro’s interview methodology elicits an excellent understanding of the issues and decision-making processes related to strategic planning, technology benchmarking, and vendor selection and negotiation. The InfoPro’s Commentator Network members comprise a variety of industry types and levels of technology adoption. TheInfoPro screens potential commentators to ensure that they can discuss in detail their enterprises’ technology roadmap and relationships with pertinent vendors. To participate, a commentator must work for a large or midsize enterprise. For the purposes of this study, large enterprises have at least $1 billion in revenue, while midsize enterprises have annual revenue between $100 million and $999 million.

About 451 Research

451 Research, a division of The 451 Group, is focused on the business of enterprise IT innovation. The company’s analysts provide critical and timely insight into the competitive dynamics of innovation in emerging technology segments. Business value is delivered via daily concise and insightful published research, periodic deeper-dive reports, data tools, market-sizing research, analyst advisory, and conferences and events. Clients of the company – at vendor, investor, service-provider and end-user organizations – rely on 451 Research’s insight to support both strategic and tactical decision-making. 451 Research is headquartered in New York, with offices in key locations, including San Francisco, Washington DC, London, Boston, Seattle and Denver.

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Source: 451 Research