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SaaS Leads Enterprise Cloud Deployments, Security Remains Biggest Obstacle

By Erin Harrison
Executive Editor, Cloud Computing

While cloud services are opening up new opportunities for vendors, they also introduce major risks, along with the need to develop and sell new solutions, and the need to target new buyers. Meanwhile for enterprises, security concerns remain the biggest obstacle to deployment, as well as the biggest criteria in choosing a provider, and Software-as-as-Service (SaaS) leads enterprise deployments, according to a new study.

Reliability follows security, which tops the list of challenges post-deployment as well, according to Current Analysis (News - Alert), which released its Enterprise Cloud Adoption study.

In fact, enterprises are moving beyond cloud experimentation to broader-based implementations, according to Bruce Page, vice president of custom research at Current Analysis.

“Sixty-four percent of enterprises surveyed by Current Analysis use the cloud now; the remainder will deploy workloads to the cloud and/or consume apps via the cloud within the next 24 months,” Page said.

The study, which is based on research of 550 companies in the U.S. and Europe, found that although SaaS leads enterprise cloud deployments, the number of respondents using Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions doubled over 2011.

When it comes to decision-making, 67 percent of companies surveyed say senior management is in the driver’s seat when choosing cloud solutions; however, the IT organization is expected to influence the decision.

Based on research, Current Analysis predicts that alliances between vendors, such as AT&T (News - Alert)/IBM and Sprint/CSC, will significantly impact the market

“Vendors are filling gaps and creating innovative, end-to-end cloud solutions that bring the market competition to a new level,” said Ashok Kumar, associate director of custom research at Current Analysis.

Cloud computing has already begun changing how IT delivers economic value to countries, industries, and businesses although it is still emerging as a computing style. Through 2015, with as many as seven million cloud-related jobs available worldwide, the demand for cloud-ready IT workers will grow by 26 percent annually, according to an IDC report sponsored by Microsoft (News - Alert) Corp.

According to the estimates provided by IDC for 2011, since cloud computing features unique economic leverage, IT cloud services helped organizations of all sizes and all vertical sectors around the world generate $400 billion in economic benefit. During the same year, according to IDC (News - Alert) estimates, cloud helped drive 1.5 million new jobs.

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