InformationWeek's Cloud Computing Destination

Cloud Computing Reality Check

Lots of fresh research is coming out on the state of cloud computing. The following data points provide a snapshot of user attitudes in this fast-moving market.

Who's using cloud services?

18% Using cloud services today
9% Planning to use cloud services within 12 months
25% Considering cloud services
48% No plans
InformationWeek Analytics' Cloud Computing Survey of 547 business technology pros, February 2009

What are your top concerns about cloud services?

57% Security defects in cloud technology
53% Unauthorized access to or leaks of company information
47% Unauthorized access to or leaks of customer information
32% Application performance
30% Viability of cloud vendor
InformationWeek Analytics' Cloud Computing Survey of 547 business technology pros, February 2009

What are the top obstacles cloud computing providers must overcome?

64% Security/shared environment
58% Administration and support
40% Control, vendor lock-in
39% Performance
30% Bad reputation of existing cloud services
Hosting.com Cloud Computing Trends survey of 644 business executives and decision makers, January 2009

How would you prefer to pay for cloud services?

32% Monthly, no contract, by usage
16% Monthly, no contract, base fee plus resource bursting
18% Annual with adjustments based on needs and bursting
34% Unsure
Hosting.com Cloud Computing Trends survey of 644 business executives and decision makers, January 2009

Who's using pay-per-use hosted virtual servers?

2% of SMBs
2% of SMBs plan to use within 12 months
5% of enterprises
3% of enterprises plan to use within 12 months
Forrester Research survey of 2,600 technology decision makers, February 2009

Who's using software as a service?

20% Using
31% Considering
49% Not likely to consider
Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek Analytics survey of 305 business technology professionals, January 2009

The benefits of cloud computing are:

70% Improved flexibility
65% Focus on core business
62% React more quickly to market conditions
51% Gain access to latest technologies
Avanade/Kelton Research survey of 502 C-level executives and IT decision makers, February 2009

I can't provide a link to the above-mentioned InformationWeek Analytics Cloud Computing Survey because it's so new that our report hasn't been published yet. However, you'll find all kinds of in-depth reports on cloud computing at InformationWeek's Cloud Computing download page.