The commonly-held view among those who don’t spend their days immersed in the clouds is that cloud computing can be pared down to what is essentially SaaS. After all, most mainstream definitions spun from the distance of the small and mid-sized business camp can be nicely boiled down to just that—“you see,” they say, “ the cloud is pretty much just like Google Docs, instead of installing software on your computer, you use it over the web as a service. Some things you pay for, some things you don’t.”
However, the definitions about multiple cloud models and strategies, including Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are often overlooked because, quite frankly, not everyone needs them, except, of course, those who are functioning on the larger scale. While there are several emerging PaaS and IaaS use cases that are of interest (and even more on the books for the last couple of years in particular) we don’t hear enough about these models and because of that, it’s difficult to believe that there are actually a relatively (should I italicize that “relatively” or repeat it a few times?) large number of large-scale enterprises considering the IaaS model—at least if you take this as truth from the 400 or so IT professionals who fessed up to appease a survey.
According to a recently-released Yankee Group survey, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is increasingly showing up on the IT radar for a number of enterprises as a new cloud computing strategy. The results, which were based questions directed at the leaders of 400 enterprises (although industry or focus was not specified in any detail) claim that “24 percent of large enterprises with cloud experience are already using IaaS, and an additional 37 percent expect to adopt IaaS during the next 24 months.” The research group notes that while surprising, these numbers pale in comparison to those whose use of cloud extends only so far as select SaaS adoption, but it might represent a growing trend—and hence a new push on the part of vendors to reach potential IaaS users.
One of the more compelling points this study makes about IaaS is how it is being considered by large enterprises. The Yankee Group states that “storage and on-demand compute are top IaaS use cases” for organizations that have already instituted broader PaaS or IaaS strategies in the past two years. They also note that “enterprises see cloud as a second-tier storage alternative” and point out that while “on demand compute is attractive, use cases are not clear cut.”
As Joe McKendrick at ZDNet noted of the results, virtualization security is the biggest barrier preventing wider IaaS adoption. “However, those that have already deployed IaaS say other issues come to the fore, including regulatory compliance, data migration, reliability, employee use and quantitative benefits.”
What’s in a Name?
The report also included some interesting fodder for vendors, albeit some that comes without much surprise. The respondents indicated, with minimal exception, that “traditional IT suppliers are the most trusted suppliers of cloud for enterprises” and that as organizations begin to put their efforts into their internal cloud projects, the “role of vendors and integrators becomes most critical.”
There is no doubt that with a technological movement like cloud, which many are still wary about given the host of security, regulatory and other issues, large enterprises brave enough to make the leap are not going to do so without the perceived safety net of a big name vendor. For those newcomers to the cloud space, the biggest challenge will be convincing customers that it is possible to supply the most intangible, yet most important deliverable of all—the trust that only seems to come with longevity in technology. IBM, Microsoft, and now even Amazon are all “big name celebrities” in the world of cloud and competing with this kind of history is nearly impossible, even when you leave out the question of available marketing dollars.
The State of the Enterprise Cloud Market
On the whole, the Yankee Group contends that enterprises are “optimistic about cloud computing” in terms of capex-to-opex issues and the ability to have elastic, on-demand resources. In a graphic representing enterprise sentiments about the cloud (which is available here, but be prepared to surrender your vital details before you can have it) only 1% thought the cloud was nothing more than marketing hype—a figure that would make some interesting comparison fodder for a survey asking the same question a few years ago. On the flipside, 57% percent of respondents agreed that the cloud is “an enabling technology that drives business transformation and innovation” with the less enthusiastic 35% stating that yes, while it is essentially a good thing, it’s an “evolving concept that will take years to mature.”
Responding to a survey abut intended plans to optimize IT infrastructure is far easier than actually doing it—ask any enterprise IT exec who has done both. Still, it will be interesting to see if there will be a greater push from the IaaS vendors who might have been wary to invest in heavily heralding an offering that only a select few seemed to want not so long ago.