Public Cloud Concerns Remain Strong: SurveyPublic Cloud Concerns Remain Strong: Survey

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In a survey of cloud marketplace participants, 70% of responders said they wanted to run financial applications and ERP in a private cloud setting, 60% said the same about email and collaboration, and 55% said private cloud was the place for custom applications.

In short, the preference for a private enterprise cloud behind the firewall remains as strong as ever, despite the growth in public cloud computing, according to a recent survey of 302 cloud marketplace participants by the Everest Group.

The continued strong interest in private cloud versus public cloud indicates that worries about security and integration of cloud workloads with other applications still prevail among enterprise cloud users and inhibit a more general migration of workloads into the public cloud, wrote Everest Group analysts in the report, "Enterprise Cloud Adoption Survey 2013."

The survey was conducted through an online, emailed survey to three target groups of cloud computing participants: 33% were enterprise cloud service buyers, 30% were cloud solution providers, and 37% were consultants and other advisory professionals. The results will be presented by Everest Group analyst Scott Bils in an April 2 presentation at UBM's Cloud Connect conference in Santa Clara, Calif. A similar survey conducted last year for Cloud Connect was reported in Forbes.

[ Want to learn more about private cloud possibilities? See OpenStack Deployment Tool Goes Open Source. ]

"We wonder if the buyers are overestimating the challenges involved in public cloud adoption. While outage incidents have been widely publicized, we doubt if the overall frequency of public cloud failures has been significantly higher than what one would expect in a traditional environment," the Everest group authors wrote.

When it comes to public cloud suppliers, the survey participants had a usage pattern that might reflect the general marketplace: 27% were already using Amazon Web Services; 19% were "aware of and likely to consider" using Amazon; 27% were not considering using it; and 27% said they were not aware of the service.

Google App Engine and Compute Engine scored highest among the group considering cloud services: 19% were using it; 37% were considering using it; 35% were not considering it; and 9% were not aware of it.

Microsoft showed a somewhat similar spread: 17% were using Windows Azure services; 38% were aware of and considering Azure; 37% were not considering it; and 8% were not aware of it.

The Rackspace Cloud came in fourth, with 7% using it; 36% aware of and considering it; 35% not considering it; and 22% not aware of it.

The AT&T Synaptic Compute Cloud somewhat surprisingly occupied the fifth place spot, with 7% using it; 27% aware of and considering it; 34% not considering it; and 32% not aware of it.

IBM was sixth, with 5% using the SmartCloud; 35% aware of and considering it; 46% not considering it; and 14% not aware of it.

Verizon's Terremark unit was seventh, with 5% using it; 20% considering it; 34% not considering it; and 41% not aware of it.

HP Cloud was eighth, with 4% using it; 33% considering it; 45% not considering it; and 18% not aware of it.

Ninth was CenturyLink Savvis, with 4% using it; 12% considering it; 32% not considering it; and 52% not aware of it.

And tenth was Joyent, with 2% using it; 11% considering it; 44% aware of but not considering it, and 43% not aware of it. Runners up were CSC (the former Computer Sciences Corp. in Atlanta), eleventh; and GoGrid, twelfth.

The Everest Group noted AWS's dominant mindshare for public cloud deployment, but said competition from Google, AT&T, Rackspace and other players will likely intensify and, consequently, market expansion is an imperative for profitable growth.

The report said public cloud providers "may need to modify their communication on the cost benefits of adoption from a pure cost/unit conservation to one that is more focused around lower total cost of ownership and return on investment." That is, cloud suppliers might do themselves a favor if they put less emphasis on their hourly rates and more on how the total cost of ownership works out, in terms of cloud versus on-premises equipment.

Cloud Connect returns to Silicon Valley, April 2-5, 2013, for four days of lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions on a comprehensive selection of cloud topics taught by leading industry experts. Join us in Silicon Valley to see new products, keep up-to-date on industry trends and create and strengthen professional relationships. Use Priority Code MPIWK by March 30 to save an extra $200 off the advance price of Conference Passes. Register for Cloud Connect now.