CIOs are yet to be convinced that switching to a cloud-based applications infrastructure will actually reduce IT costs, according to new research from Quest Software.
Although cloud computing is one of the hottest topics in enterprise IT at the moment, the survey reveals that just under 75% of respondents are not sure about cloud’s cost benefits.
The survey garnered opinions from 100 CIOs at UK organisations with over 1,000 employees.
Half of those quizzed said that they are finding it difficult to calculate the true costs associated with cloud computing because they do not actually know how much their current IT infrastructure is costing them.
Not being able to work out the financial savings associated with moving to the cloud means that 44% of IT bosses currently have no plans in place to use cloud computing. Just 20% said that they are already actively using cloud within their applications stack.
“We’re certainly not saying that cloud computing is a false dawn for enterprise IT – indeed, this technology promises a wide range of benefits to organisations large and small,” said Joe Baguley, CTO, Europe, Quest Software. “What we would say, however, is that companies should not rush head-first into adopting this technology before firstly taking a step back to analyse current costs and potential benefits of a switch to cloud.”
Security – the perennial barrier to cloud adoption – was picked by 38% of respondents as the primary reason for staying away from the cloud. Other reasons selected were worries over the technical complexity of cloud implementation and a lack of understanding about the benefits.
Baguley, however, said that security and migration paths do not need to be a game-breaker for cloud adoption.
“It simply falls to the vendor community to ensure that customers are fully aware of the options available to them; that the tools exist to deliver seamless migration of mission-critical applications; and to ensure that facilities exist to roll-back cloud migrations where technical glitches do occur,” he said.
