Public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud -- does it really make a difference anymore? Apparently, not as much as it once did. A recent survey of 213 executives finds there's less concern about the origins of cloud services, and more attention to how they can expand the business and deliver competitive advantage.
That's the key finding of a study from Cloud Connect, conducted in partnership with Everest Group. The survey finds a rise in the number of executives expressing "indifference" as to whether they prefer specific applications to be delivered by public or private cloud providers. For example, 38 percent say the are indifferent as to whether their supply chain management and procurement applications were run in the public or private cloud, up from 24 percent a year ago. Another 34 percent report they don't care if their ERP or financial suite comes from public or private clouds -- up from 18 percent last year. Plus, 34 percent say where their business intelligence and analytics services come from isn't important -- also up from 18 percent.
Increasingly, business capabilities are being built on assemblies of services that come from the best and most cost-effective sources -- whether from inside the data center or from outside providers.
The survey also discussed five misconceptions about cloud computing that continue to hold back progress:
Misconception: Enterprises are still experimenting with cloud. "Enterprises are investing significantly in cloud," the study finds, noting that 58 percent of the enterprises spend more than 10 percent of their annual IT budgets on cloud services."
Misconception: The CIO role is dead. "More than 75% of the enterprises surveyed believe its critical for the cloud services ecosystem," the survey finds.
Misconception: Cloud is relevant only for technology needs. It goes well beyond the data center. "Today 56% of enterprises consider cloud to be a strategic business differentiator that enables operational excellence and accelerated innovation."
Misconception: Security concerns are a thing of the past. Security is still top of mind when it comes to cloud decisions. But it no longer automatically means going to private cloud -- "this scenario is expected to change as public cloud providers are making considerable investments to strengthen their security architecture," the survey report suggests. "Hybrid is expected to be the way forward."
Misconception: Cloud consumption is simple. "In actuality, more than 65% of enterprises believe they need help to deploy cloud solutions as most lack the internal IT skills and expertise needed."
