Australian adoption of cloud computing is growing, according to a report conducted by growth specialists Frost & Sullivan.
The State of Cloud Computing in Australia: 2011 report showed that 43% of Australian enterprises had adopted cloud computing in some form or another, and indicated that 41% of IT decision makers said cloud computing would be a priority in the near future.
The key findings indicated that enterprises had decided to employ a cloud model to reduce capital and operational expenditure, reduce costs, increase business agility, and boost their ability to deliver IT on demand.
“There has been a significant increase in the use of cloud services in Australia in the past 12 months and all the indications are that this will continue,” remarked Arun Chandrasekaran, research director for ICT Practice at Frost & Sullivan.
“While a formal ‘cloud first’ policy does not exist yet in most enterprises, the idea of a ‘cloud alternative’ evaluation is increasingly common,” he said. “We expect to see a number of trial deployments this year as companies dip their toes in the water and test non-mission critical applications and infrastructure.”
Australians showed a preference for hybrid cloud services, which boasted more than 50% of current cloud users. Hybrid clouds are a combination of public cloud services, usually provided over the internet using applications, and private cloud services, which are company or service provider-owned and deployed inside a firewall.
While more than 70% of cloud users have adopted software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) has seen an increase in uptake in the past 12 months, the report revealed. Platform as a service (PaaS) is, conversely, still in its infancy.
Frost & Sullivan predicts that spending on cloud will be maintained or increase in the current fiscal year. Some customers will, however, continue to be cautious about cost savings from cloud computing and hold suspicions regarding hidden costs and downtime.
The report forms part of the Frost & Sullivan Australian Cloud Computing Research program. For more information, see frost.com.
