|
Software giant Microsoft says it is investing heavily in building a cloud infrastructure, but doesn’t expect to see serious revenues from the investment to begin flowing for two to three years.
The company believes cloud computing will be a major line of business for the company in the future, but for now, it’s more about building the infrastructure and educating customers on the costs and benefits.
The insights into the current state of cloud computing came from Microsoft Server and Tools Division President Bob Muglia, who spoke recently during a Webcast from the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.
“From the perspective of investment internally, interest from customers and engagement, clearly the cloud will be an area of focus,” Muglia said. He added that cloud revenues are currently not material to the company’s revenue, but when you look three years down the road, “there it becomes very material,” he said.
Muglia’s comments are not out of line with what other technology giants have been saying. In many respects it’s like the early days of building the railroads – huge infrastructures are being laid for what companies eventually believe will be the future of computing.
It is also supported by a report issued last week by research firm Yankee Group which predicted cloud computing vendors will make significant progress in 2010 in winning over enterprise support, but not necessarily in making money.
In the report, titled Cloud Reality Check, Boston-based Yankee Group, said cloud vendors are making serious gains in terms of winning over mindshare, but that mindshare isn’t yet translating into market share.
The good news says Yankee Group analyst Agatha Poon, is that more than 25% of survey respondents plan to move a portion of their infrastructure to the cloud in the next 12 months to test the reliability and benefits. The results of those pilots will prove important in terms of wider adoption and the speed at which that adoption takes place. The research firm says cloud computing still has significant hurdles to overcome. “Enterprises cite key stumbling blocks, including security, performance, standards and interoperability issues. And Yankee Group sees those issue festering well into 2010 and beyond,” the report states.
Other key findings include:
• Forty-three percent of enterprises survey cited cost savings as the primary reason for moving their infrastructure to cloud computing.
• Established vendors have a leg up on the competition. Enterprises say their go-to vendors for infrastructure-as-a service offerings in 2010 include Cisco, IBM, and AT&T, while Microsoft, IBM and Sun are the prime choices for platform as a service.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
