Cloud to be the rule, not the exception, by 2015

Cloud will be the status quo by 2015, according to a survey of IT executives, industry analysts, and members of the media attending the 2011 Cloud Leadership Forum.

“Sixty-five percent answered yes to the prediction that the success of cloud computing will ensure its demise as a concept by 2015, meaning cloud has become a standard component of enterprise sourcing strategies; 24% said no,” according to Network Computing, which reported on the conference.

While most CIOs agreed, for the time being, most programs moved to the cloud will still be those of the non-mission critical variety, by 2015 they see this changing. A majority believed by that time “at least 30 [percent] of Fortune 1000 enterprises will deploy at least one business-critical system in the cloud.”

As for what’s coming down the road for cloud computing, 79 percent of survey respondents believed cloud service brokers “will emerge as powerful industry players by 2015.”

According to IDC Research, the use of cloud computing will also free up IT staffs to focus more on innovation within their companies in the coming years. IDC expects the amount of time CIOs currently spend on innovation to double in five years.

Survey: What feds really think about cloud computing

29 percent of federal IT professionals are currently using cloud computing and another 29 percent plan to be using it within the next 12 months, according to the latest survey from InformationWeek Government and InformationWeek Analytics.

InformationWeek surveyed 137 federal IT pros for the survey.

Some of the other major findings in the survey:

• 21 percent say they are shifting to cloud services to comply with guidance from the Office of Management and Budget.
• 62 percent say they are taking the jump into the cloud to lower IT costs.
• 77 percent say security is a major concern in moving to the cloud.
• 46 percent say they are “already using or highly likely to use private clouds.”
• 11 percent say they are “highly likely to adopt commercial cloud services.”
• 22 percent say they are likely to use commercial clouds that have been adapted for government customers.
• 44 percent are unfamiliar with FedRAMP. (FedRAMP was established “to provide a standard approach to assessing and authorizing cloud computing services and products” across government, according to the CIO Council website.)
• 53 percent are unfamiliar with NIST’s new program, the Standards Acceleration to Jumpstart Adoption of Cloud Computing. (SAJACC helps develop cloud computing standards.)

CFOs unfamiliar with cloud computing

Cloud computing may be a familiar term for chief information officers but that’s not the case for chief financial officers, according to two new surveys from CFO Magazine.

When asked to describe their current approach to cloud computing, 29 percent of the CFOs surveyed admit they aren’t sure what cloud computing really means. Another 27 percent say they are exploring cloud options but don’t know if they’ll use cloud services.

The up side?

Of the CFOs currently using the cloud and those that believe they will use the cloud, 44 percent say cloud computing will allow them to “significantly rethink and restructure [their] overall IT strategy.”