Businesses Report Strong Upsides Of Cloud Migration

A recent survey the Interop Conference in Las Vegas revealed that migration to cloud computing services has increased 20 percent compared to last year.  As well, it was found that the companies who said they adopted the cloud reported the greatest gains in increased application availability and scalability.
Network Instruments Survey Findings
Network Instruments is a provider of performance management and troubleshooting solutions. Network Instruments’ 5th annual survey included responses from 94 IT executives. The survey revealed that “61 percent of respondents have cloud computing services running on their network in 2011. About half of those have implemented some form of SaaS, like Salesforce.com or Google Apps.” Some 50 percent of cloud users had deployed a private cloud, 21 percent more than a year ago. Some 21 percent rely on some form of PaaS, like Microsoft Azure and Salesforce. Respondents to the survey also indicated that percentage of applications running in the cloud will climb to 38 percent from 21 percent by mid-2012.
 
Cloud Benefits Reported
In the Network Instruments survey, respondents reported benefits of the cloud. For instance, “61 percent said application availability improved, and 52 percent said end-user experience also improved. More than half of respondents reported their ability to scale applications to meet the demands of their organization had improved with cloud computing.”
Cloud Negatives Reported
In the Network Instruments survey, respondents reported a few cloud negatives. For instance, 52 percent of the respondents said it was more difficult to monitor, cloud performance worsened or remained the same after deploying cloud services, and 60 percent said their ability to troubleshoot problems worsened or remained the same after migrating to the cloud.”
Network Instruments Survey Analysis
Brad Reinboldt, senior product manager of Network Instruments, summed up the findings, “Although cloud adopters have reported improvements in application availability and cost savings, these improvements aren’t sustainable in the long run without appropriate monitoring tools. When trouble does hit, it falls in the lap of the organization’s network team to prove that the problem is occurring on the cloud provider’s side. Without proof, organizations will waste time finger pointing, jeopardizing any cost savings or efficiency improvements.”