Despite a significant shift to cloud applications, most companies (especially in Europe) remain conservative about which applications they put in public clouds. Less than 20% of U.S. and European companies would consider or seriously consider putting their most critical applications in public clouds. But 66% of U.S. and 48% of European companies would consider putting core applications in private clouds.
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With cloud applications having made more than a foothold in large companies around the world, it might appear that senior executives are putting aside their fears about the security of data and systems in the cloud. But that would be a wrong presumption.
Business and IT executives appear to largely endorse the use of applications hosted in “private” clouds – data center(s) devoted to the computing needs of a one company (whether or not that data center is owned by the company or a third party). But they are not so trustful of applications running in “public” clouds – data centers that third parties run for numerous customers.
That is what we found from the answers to a series of questions in our survey to gauge interest in using public and private clouds for two types of applications software: “core” (strategic applications that provide competitive advantage) and “non-core” (applications that are necessary for doing business but which don’t deliver a competitive edge).
In the U.S., for example, only 18% said they would consider or highly consider putting core applications in public clouds; in contrast, a slight majority (51%) said they would not consider it at all or only slightly consider it. Nonetheless, two-thirds (66%) said they would consider or highly consider putting core applications in private clouds. Only 3% said they would reject the idea out of hand, vs. 30% who would reject putting core apps in public clouds.
Putting non-core applications in the cloud was an entirely different matter. Some 42% of our U.S. respondents said they would consider or highly consider putting non-core apps in public clouds – more than said they would not consider it at all or would only slightly consider it (30%). And nearly three-quarters (72%) said they would consider or highly consider putting non-core apps in private clouds, a concept rejected by only 3%.
European Companies are Even More Conservative About the Cloud; Latin American and Asia-Pacific Companies are Less Conservative
Relative to their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, U.S. and European companies were far less likely to put core applications in public clouds. But they and their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and Latin America were far more likely to put core apps in private clouds dedicated to their organizations. Still, European companies were very conservative on this measure, with less than half (48%) saying they were willing to put core apps in private clouds (vs. 79% of the Latin American companies that we surveyed).
The relatively high percentage of Latin American (30%) and Asia-Pacific (41%) companies that are willing to consider putting strategic applications in public clouds signifies that they have a higher risk tolerance than their colleagues in Europe (especially) and the U.S. Thus, it appears that private clouds are far more acceptable to most large companies today than public clouds – even though private clouds can’t deliver the cost savings of public clouds, which share costs among many clients.
Business and IT executives appear to largely endorse the use of applications hosted in “private” clouds – data center(s) devoted to the computing needs of a one company (whether or not that data center is owned by the company or a third party). But they are not so trustful of applications running in “public” clouds – data centers that third parties run for numerous customers.
That is what we found from the answers to a series of questions in our survey to gauge interest in using public and private clouds for two types of applications software: “core” (strategic applications that provide competitive advantage) and “non-core” (applications that are necessary for doing business but which don’t deliver a competitive edge).
In the U.S., for example, only 18% said they would consider or highly consider putting core applications in public clouds; in contrast, a slight majority (51%) said they would not consider it at all or only slightly consider it. Nonetheless, two-thirds (66%) said they would consider or highly consider putting core applications in private clouds. Only 3% said they would reject the idea out of hand, vs. 30% who would reject putting core apps in public clouds.
Putting non-core applications in the cloud was an entirely different matter. Some 42% of our U.S. respondents said they would consider or highly consider putting non-core apps in public clouds – more than said they would not consider it at all or would only slightly consider it (30%). And nearly three-quarters (72%) said they would consider or highly consider putting non-core apps in private clouds, a concept rejected by only 3%.
European Companies are Even More Conservative About the Cloud; Latin American and Asia-Pacific Companies are Less Conservative
Relative to their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, U.S. and European companies were far less likely to put core applications in public clouds. But they and their counterparts in Asia-Pacific and Latin America were far more likely to put core apps in private clouds dedicated to their organizations. Still, European companies were very conservative on this measure, with less than half (48%) saying they were willing to put core apps in private clouds (vs. 79% of the Latin American companies that we surveyed).
The relatively high percentage of Latin American (30%) and Asia-Pacific (41%) companies that are willing to consider putting strategic applications in public clouds signifies that they have a higher risk tolerance than their colleagues in Europe (especially) and the U.S. Thus, it appears that private clouds are far more acceptable to most large companies today than public clouds – even though private clouds can’t deliver the cost savings of public clouds, which share costs among many clients.