As cloud computing is fast becoming an in thing in the recent business scenario, 66% of enterprises plan to move to a hybrid cloud environment within the next four years, according to new research from Ipanema Technologies and Orange Business Services.
A large majority is moving away from the option for a cloud only (17%) or private data centre only approach (17%) to a combine public cloud and private data centres approach to deliver business applications, the study of 150 enterprise CIOs and IT directors finds
More than 63% of businesses surveyed plan to use a mixture of traditional MPLS-based corporate networks and cost-effective IP-VPNs to support the hybrid cloud model.
Moving to a hybrid networking strategy emerges as a popular route to control IT budgets as almost 70% of companies citing cost reduction as the primary driver for selecting a cloud project.
More than half of the companies plan to deploy and manage their on-going cloud program themselves using their own IT department, despite the increased complexity associated with a hybrid networking model, whereas only 31% plan to outsource this process to external service providers.
The research stated security as the primary barrier to cloud adoption with 58% of respondents believing security concerns prevented greater implementation, while 39% of respondents viewing performance issues as a barrier to further adoption.
Ipanema Technologies marketing director Béatrice Piquer said from this research it’s clear that a combination of cloud and private data centres is becoming the primary model for enterprise IT.
"IT leaders taking on this challenge need to view the WAN as a strategic asset and guarantee performance at the application level," Piquer said.
Private cloud (completely virtualised central datacentre) will be implemented by half of the companies by end of 2012, whereas a third has already implemented a private cloud with a further 20% expecting to do so within the next two years.
