Zone 4
What does all this mean?
As companies focus on becoming more agile and responsive in today’s business climate so they are increasingly turning to cloud computing. Key developments in the journey to cloud computing can be summarised as:
Security factors prevail as cloud adoption grows
There is a healthy regard for security as an integral part of cloud usage and companies are now asking “how” the services are secured and “what” the weak points are in the end-to-end service
Risk evaluation of cloud deployment
Risk evaluation is complex but the absence of risk assessment in moving to cloud models is somewhat alarming. As cloud deployments become more strategic and span more parts of the business, we would expect to see risk evaluation becoming more sophisticated
Data privacy and contract issues are increasingly important for adoption
Increasing maturity in the cloud market is evidenced by concerns around the location of data, the desire for meaningful service level agreements and the need for integrated end-to-end service
Quality assurance and transition management are key enablers
Businesses are taking a phased adoption of cloud. This arguably misses the point of cloud with its inherent flexibility and scalability and internal politics and conservatism could compromise momentum
Infrastructure and service provider business will drive enterprise cloud adoption
2011 looks set to be the year when cloud grows up and service market understanding and ability to meet specific European customer needs during the transition to cloud will define success