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By Cara Garretson
A new study from F5 Networks shows that the majority of large enterprises are at least in the trial stages of implementing cloud computing. But perhaps more importantly, the report reveals significant confusion about what cloud computing really means -- leading the company to take a stab at defining it.
F5, which develops application delivery platforms, in June hired market researcher Applied Research to survey 250 IT managers at large, U.S.-based enterprises in order to determine adoption levels of cloud computing among these types of companies.
The survey found that 99 percent of participants said they are discussing or implementing "public and private cloud computing solutions," while 82 percent said they are at "some stage of trial, implementation, or use of public clouds," and 83 percent said the same for private clouds.
Additionally, 66 percent of respondents said they currently have a dedicated budget for cloud computing, and 71 percent expect those budgets to grow over the next two years.
But first things first -- what is cloud computing?
As part of the survey, Applied Research tested six commonly used industry definitions of the cloud and asked the respondents to pick which one was "just right." While no single definition emerged, two garnered 68 percent each of the vote:
1. Cloud computing is on-demand access to virtualized IT resources that are housed outside of your own data center, shared by others, simple to use, paid for via subscription and accessed over the Web;
2. Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud."
Looking to establish a firm definition for cloud computing, F5 enlisted the help of enterprise IT managers, network architects, and cloud service providers in a subsequent focus group and came up with the following:
"Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the 'cloud' that supports them. Furthermore, cloud computing employs a model for enabling available, convenient, and on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction."
The survey went on to question IT managers about which technology components they believe to be essential to cloud computing. Access control was named by 90 percent as somewhat or very important, while 89 percent said network security is a core component and 88 percent responded that server and storage virtualization are essential.
While the definition of cloud computing was hazy to respondents, reasons for moving to it were clear. Efficiency ranked as number one, followed by reducing capital costs and easing staffing issues.
"It's no surprise that large enterprises are attracted to cloud computing because of the promise of an agile, scalable IT infrastructure and reduced costs," said Jason Needham, senior director of product management at F5, in a prepared statement.
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