Analysts question enterprise cloud readiness

Internal cloud projects are fraught with danger, warn experts

A number of recently published analyst reports point to a growing appetite for cloud computing among enterprises large and small, but they also point to a crucial lack of service provider and enterprise readiness.

A Forrester Research report said that just five per cent of enterprise IT operations teams actually meet the requirements for cloud computing.

The report defined cloud computing as "more than just using server virtualisation", and warned that most enterprise IT infrastructure and operations functions lack the experience and maturity to manage such an environment internally.

The report's author, Forrester vice president and principal analyst James Staten, explained that cloud computing is "a standardised, self-service, pay-per-use deployment model".

However, given the current opinion held by many enterprise IT functions that public cloud services are still too immature and insecure for adoption, Staten warned against falling into the trap of pursuing an internal cloud project without being fully prepared.

The report said that companies need to have the people, process and tools in place to deliver IT on demand, sharing resources and maximising the use of IT assets to enable the company to act nimbly.

Staten urged companies to start investing now by following Forrester's cloud maturity path, which outlines the basic requirements for a cloud deployment.

"Forrester's research shows that it takes years to get cloud-ready. This means that firms should begin investing now in cloud knowledge by experimenting with cloud infrastructures and cloud-in-a-box solutions to learn how clouds actually operate," he said.

The model includes a standardised set of the most commonly repeated opera ting procedures, fully automated deployment of most routine management tasks, self-service access for internal users via a service catalogue or portal, and individual business units sharing the same IT infrastructure.

Such requirements also seem to be affecting cloud adoption among smaller enterprises, in Europe particularly, according to SME-focused cloud research unveiled yesterday.

A global survey by Spiceworks of 1,500 IT professionals at SMEs with fewer than 1,000 employees revealed that the Latin and South American regions are leading cloud services adoption, followed by Asia-Pacific and North America. This leaves European SMEs trailing, with fewer than one in five buying into cloud.