Asia Pacific CIOs increase awareness in cloud services

CIOs are adding public and private cloud delivery models to their services sourcing portfolio.

CIOs have been inundated with a barrage of information about the cloud in the last 12 months. Today, they are better informed about this fast moving market and have become more ready to start making commitments in the cloud space, according to IDC’s Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) or APEJ Cloud Computing end user survey 2010.

The APEJ cloud services market has rapidly matured in the last year, with higher awareness of both the pros and cons of the public and private cloud delivery models. But along with this better understanding, there remain concerns about the potential weaknesses of the cloud delivery models -- security and availability. In this context, informed and pragmatic decisions are being made about which applications are best suited to a cloud delivery model, and whether that application should be sourced from the public cloud, or whether implementing the application in a private cloud is the best solution.

Chris Morris, IDC's Asia/Pacific Research Director of Asia/Pacific IT Services Research says, "The recent uncertain economic conditions have accelerated interest in cloud delivery models because of their ability to deliver IT and business services at a much lower capital outlay. This is the key factor in which cloud services are now being evaluated."

IDC has seen a rapid maturation of users' understanding of cloud services and cloud computing in 2010. Chris adds, "Rather than 'The Cloud' being viewed as a collection of new technologies, savvy CIOs now see 'The Cloud' as being an extension of their sourcing strategies." Today, CIOs are adding both the public and private cloud delivery models to their services sourcing portfolio, just as they have added outsourced and managed services in the past. They are also applying the same selectivity to the cloud as they do to other externally sourced services.

Now that CIOs have the answers to some of their initial concerns surrounding the use of "The Cloud", they want to be informed enough to be able to ask the smart questions about their potential cloud vendors to ensure that they are making the best strategic decisions. "This is a very important stage of the development of the cloud market,” says Chris.

Though the ability of cloud services to deliver IT cost savings continues to remain the top benefit identified by the respondents, other factors, especially in the mature markets, are also rated highly. Workload is one of the most apparent determinants when choosing a delivery model.