Cloud computing will become the main IT platform in 2014

According to foreign media reports, a survey revealed that most CIOs in Europe believe that by 2014, cloud computing will provide their main IT operations channel. Although only 16% of enterprises said that they have deployed cloud computing across the enterprise so far, 60% of respondents said that by 2014, cloud computing will become their most important way of IT operations.

A study commissioned by communications provider Colt surveyed 500 CIOs in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, of which 100 CIOs were British.

The survey found that 58% of respondents said that ease of transition is a key challenge for cloud applications, while 55% of respondents said that quality assurance and reasonable cost are key challenges for cloud applications. 54% of respondents believe that security regulations and customer data control are also key challenges for cloud applications.

Mark Leonard, Colt ’s executive vice president in charge of the CIO ’s office, said that although the full deployment of cloud services is difficult to establish, this trend is clear. Driven by the need for greater flexibility and responsiveness to the current economic climate, companies are evaluating and applying cloud services at a faster year-on-year growth rate.

Safety is a particularly important issue for British and German companies. 74% of British companies and 70% of German decision makers said they are worried about the security of cloud computing.

The survey showed that 46% of the respondents were concerned about supplier lock-in. 31% of respondents are concerned about the geographic location of cloud providers. Private cloud is a popular choice in Spain (58%), Germany (57%) and the United Kingdom (56%). It is believed that private clouds can eliminate security concerns, but private clouds have poor scalability and are expensive to operate.