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The Benefits of Cloud Computing

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Reduced Cost – Cloud services are paid incrementally, allowing companies to avoid paying hefty up-front costs for hardware and personnel.

Scalable Storage – Companies can easily increase the size of their storage space, and are not limited to the confines of a physical hard drive.

Automation and Redundancy – Software updates and scheduled backups happen automatically, and are not dependent on IT personnel to administer the systems.

Mobility – Cloud drives and servers can be securely accessed anywhere you have an internet connection.

Peace of Mind – Organizations no longer have to worry about maintaining legacy hardware, such as computer servers and phone systems. Management can apply 100% of their efforts to building successful businesses and developing innovative products and services.

The Emergence of the Cloud in Corporate Environments

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92% of companies with 1,000 or more employers are already using clouds. On average, enterprises have an average of 6 applications deployed on the cloud, such as email, web conferencing and data recovery tools.

On average, roughly one-third servers are virtualized within enterprise-sized organizations today. The majority of these enterprises (46%) utilize a “managed” form of virtualization — meaning they have full control of their virtual servers and are able to dynamically build and move these virtual machines.

The cost benefit, better services and enhanced productivity are primary factors attracting businesses to cloud solutions. Business professionals seek a technical environment where better technology leads to increased efficiency at a reduced cost.

The existing IT infrastructure within enterprises will continue to become more virtualized.
Over the coming years, businesses will continue to move mission-critical applications away from legacy hardware, such as servers and analog phone systems.

Hosted email is currently the most prominent application being deployed on the cloud, with 46% of businesses using this service. Virtual desktop are 24%, databases at 23% and CRM applications at 22% are the next most utilized cloud services.

Corporations tend to lean more toward private clouds than public, because of security issues. 51% of companies express a desire to more to private clouds, as they offer a much higher level of security and isolation, thereby making them more attractive at the enterprise level. Consumers, on the other hand, tend to favor pubic clouds because of their ease-of-use and typically zero-cost. Google applications are one of the most popular and widely used public clouds by consumers.

The data used in this article was culled from “The Arrival of Cloud Thinking” by Lee Black, Jack Mandelbaum, Indira Grover, Yousuf Marvi. The research was collected in September 2010 and is comprised of responses from 434 IT professionals across two regions – North American (273) and Europe (161).