"Currently, only 24% of enterprise delivery models are cloud-based"

Viewpoint on cloud computing...The convergence of cloud computing and connectivity is changing how technology is delivered and how information is consumed. According to a Coleman Parkes Research study commissioned by HP, more than 80 percent of business and technology executives believe that cloud computing will be at least as disruptive to the technology landscape as the impact of virtualization or the internet. The survey also revealed that though adoption of public and private cloud services will increase by 2020, traditional technology will remain integral to the enterprise.

Additional highlights of the research revealed that:

• Currently, only 24% of enterprise delivery models are cloud-based. By 2020, senior business and technology executives expect public and private cloud delivery models to almost double.
• The top drivers of cloud adoption are rapid application development (50%), enhanced agility to respond to market changes (32%) and reduced cost of operations (18%).
• Business and IT executives recognize that cloud implementations will be critical to driving successful outcomes and innovation. Approximately one in two chief executive officers and chief financial officers are currently setting cloud strategies for their organizations.
• Organizations are prioritizing cloud investments, with 43% of enterprises expected to invest $500,000 to $1 million annually on cloud computing between now and 2020, and almost 10% planning to spend more than $1 million annually.
• Respondents listed the top three barriers to adoption of cloud services as security concerns (35%), transformation concerns (33%), and compliance or governance concerns (17%).

Cloud trends...According to Frost & Sullivan, the top adopters of Cloud Computing are Brazil, China, India and Germany followed by USA, Mexico, Australia and Far East countries. Additionally, Cloud Computing adoption was witnessed in the following industries -

• Banking and Financial Services: Large banks with an inherent need for top-notch security are increasingly building internal private clouds. 
• Telecommunications: With the advent of 3G and popularity of Mobile VAS, telcos have the capacity to develop applications with a faster go-tomarket and reduce risk and operational overheads are predicted to see increased adoption.
• Manufacturing: Adoption of IaaS and ERP based SaaS applications are predicted to pick up in the SME manufacturing segment typically from discrete manufacturing, industrial engineering and logistics industries.
• Healthcare: With medical tourism growing, India is slowly becoming a hub for healthcare services. The healthcare industry is also advancing its IT platforms to touch the global standards.
• IT/ITeS: IT services companies are not just providers but also consumers of cloud technology. 
• Government and Public Sector: With current e-governance initiatives driving on a PPP model, immense investments are being made on the IT infrastructure front.

Challenges galore...According to a Coleman Parkes Research study commissioned by HP, to help with the challenges surrounding gaining insight from big data, over 60% of all APAC firms (but 88% in Japan and 81% in China) will be investing in solutions to gain insight from big data in the next 12-24 months. Interestingly, however, only 39% of Indian organisations reported that they will be making an investment.

In the private sector APAC based organisations see a variety of issues as the most important objective for their big data analytics initiatives with no single objective appearing dominant. One third of all organisations in the region report a key objective being to identify opportunities to increase operational efficiency. Almost a quarter see the core objective being to gain greater market share and top-line growth while 22% focus on risk management and compliance. Only one fifth takes a customer centric view. This would all add up to a view that the market has yet to decide on the core driver for big data analytics. Some focus on internal issues while others look at external impacts, but there is no clear focus as yet. This may change as the market matures.

In the public sector there is a much clearer picture with the core focus for big data analytics initiatives being managing risk and compliance (50% overall and 71% in Japan). 15% see the objective as being to serve the citizen better (not mentioned by those in South Korea) and 17% focus on identifying opportunities to increase operational efficiency or understanding citizen sentiment.

Road ahead...HP sees future as bright for cloud computing. However, it needs to be understood that the cloud is simply another way to deliver services, and it can't be managed separately from the traditional IT environment, with which it will inevitably coexist. Cloud is a journey, and enterprise IT needs to know where it's going- what the requirements are, and what the goals are.

The journey itself can be divided into identifiable steps.

Consolidating and standardizing IT resources - Some organizations that are growing rapidly have server sprawl. Before they bring cloud into their environment, they must consolidate and standardize the resources. This reclaims investment for their new cloud initiatives and frees up staff to focus on their core business.

Virtualization - It's impossible to move to the cloud without virtualization. Most IT organizations are already virtualized to one degree or another, so this is often a matter of accelerating efforts already underway. And in addition to providing the necessary foundation for implementing cloud, virtualization contributes to the success of an organization's consolidation efforts.

Automation - makes it possible to provision physical and virtual resources in real time and speed up response to business demands, reaction to service disruptions, disaster recovery, and so forth. With the current evolution of automation tools, we are able to use multi-vendor infrastructure products within the datacenter & achieve optimisation. This also points out to the maturity in the market of differentiating between hypervisors and the specific need for Cloud automation tools. Customers today need a choice of hypervisors - they need to have heterogeneity, and have catalogue-based services through a self-service portal equipped with a charge-back mechanism.

And finally organizations reach a point where they can give their users simple & efficient interface to request, allocate, provision & reclaim resources basis demand with a clear chargeback - the core benefit of cloud technology.