Reportlinker Adds Can Cloud Computing Help Enterprises Weather the Economic Storm? (Market Focus)

NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its
catalogue.

Reportlinker Adds Can Cloud Computing Help Enterprises Weather the Economic
Storm? (Market Focus)

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0120040/Reportlinker-Adds-Can-Cloud-Computing-Help-Enterprises-Weather-the-Economic-Storm-(Market-Focus).html

Introduction

The rapid pace of proliferation of the term "cloud computing" is nothing short
of astonishing. However, many doubts remain regarding the exact scope and
definition of the term or the long-term impact of the business model it denotes.

Scope

*Defines cloud computing, describes its model of operation and provides a
classification of cloud computing services.

*Considers drivers and inhibitors of cloud computing adoption in the context of
the current global recession.

*Outlines the emerging competitive landscape for cloud computing services and
related technologies.

*Recommends the stance that enterprises, technology vendors and service
providers should adopt regarding cloud computing.

Highlights

In merely 18 months the neologism "cloud computing" has gone from obscurity to
pervasiveness. Although elusive to define, the emerging paradigm is clearly
capturing the imagination of the IT market. Datamonitor believes that the level
of interest in the alternative models of IT consumption is driven by the ongoing
commoditization of IT technology.

Datamonitor defines cloud computing as an IT consumption pattern that relies on
abstracted resources delivered as utility services. Such approach to IT
generation, delivery and deployment allows for a more efficient way to carry out
IT tasks due to the inherent benefits of services over products.

While the current global recession will accelerate take-up of cloud computing,
the nature of computing resources and a slew of migration challenges mean that
the adoption will not be universal. Nevertheless, it remains clear to
Datamonitor that the cloud computing model will play an increasingly important
role in the future.

Reasons to Purchase

*Gain a clear, detailed and comprehensive understanding of the emerging cloud
computing paradigm.

*Identify dominant market trends in order to evaluate opportunities created by
the shift to cloud computing.

*Optimise your cloud computing strategy to capitalize on the short, medium and
long-term opportunities cloud computing will create.

Overview 1

Catalyst 1

Summary 1

Table of Contents 2

Table of figures 2

Table of tables 2

Introduction to Cloud Computing 3

The term cloud computing is quickly becoming ubiquitous 4

Cloud computing is a new pattern of IT consumption but it is proving elusive to
define 5

Cloud computing overlaps with many adjacent categories, rendering the definition
difficult 5

Cloud computing: an IT consumption pattern based on the delivery of commoditized
resources as a service 6

IT commoditization has occurred through the history of computing 6

Cloud computing may resemble the mainframe era, but it is a fundamentally
different phenomenon 7

Cloud computing marks the culmination of the commoditization process 7

Outsourcing, hosting and ASP services persist with the management of
identifiable resources 8

Electricity provides the most powerful analogy with cloud computing 8

Both electricity and IT are enabling technologies that went from strategic to
commodity assets 8

Unlike electricity, computing is a far more complex phenomenon and far less
fungible resource 8

The cloud computing taxonomy 9

Software-Platform-Infrastructure (SPI) model offers the basic cloud computing
classification 9

Further refinement of the SPI model should not rely on the proliferation of 'as
a Service' neologisms 10

Detailed taxonomy schemas focus on segmenting the infrastructure layer 10

The fabric/instance spectrum captures variations in the granularity of computing
services provision 11

Do private clouds exist? 12

Ownership should not be the central tenet of cloud computing 12

Technologies enabling local or hybrid cloud infrastructures are readily
available 12

Economies of scale dictates that the public/private gap will matter, but
bridging the divide will be possible 13

Benefits of cloud computing 14

The benefits of cloud computing are the benefits of services over products 14

Cloud computing allows enterprises to focus on their core business processes 14

Cloud computing closes the gap between IT capacity and IT demand 15

Elasticity is not built into the cloud computing model but ease of provisioning
mitigates this effect 16

Variable costs and usage-based models are the principal benefits of cloud
computing pricing 17

Capex/opex accounting strategies do not describe the full range of cloud
computing pricing models 17

Cloud computing is associated with a broad range of pricing models based on
variable cost 17

Cloud computing could act as a deflationary force in the enterprise technology
IT market 18

The combination of elasticity and utility pricing engenders IT new economics 18

Inhibitors to cloud computing adoption 19

Trust and migration to an unfamiliar model are the primary inhibitors to cloud
computing 19

The substitution of products with external services renders the issue of trust
extremely acute 19

The question of trust in cloud service providers also relates to the emotional
issue of lock-in 19

Until legal implications are better understood trust issues will continue to be
raised 19

Each cloud service model is associated with a specific set of trust challenges
20

Cloud service adoption and management challenges are currently potent inhibitors
21

Matching workloads with the optimal mode of IT delivery may be difficult 21

The business case for cloud computing is often compelling, but may be hard to
formulate with precision 21

Enterprises' procurement and spend management practices will have to evolve to
accommodate the cloud 21

The migration of business processes to the cloud is not frictionless 22

Cloud services need to remain dynamic without disrupting existing enterprise IT
architectures 22

Conclusion: benefits and inhibitors of the cloud computing model 22

Competitive Landscape 23

The roll-out of cloud infrastructures is an opportunity for commodity hardware
vendors 23

Migration into the cloud will boost thin clients, netbooks and handhelds 24

Cloud infrastructure services 24

Online retailer Amazon.com has emerged as the early leader in infrastructure
provision 24

GoGrid leads the wave of hosting providers offering instance-based cloud
computing infrastructure 25

Others could offer cloud infrastructure services, but may prefer to compete in
software or platform layers 25

Infrastructure management platforms have emerged as the critical part of the
cloud infrastructure stack 25

Cloud platform competitive landscape is particularly vibrant 26

Proprietary development platforms backed by SaaS vendors are proving popular
with ISVs and users 26

Platforms supporting generic development frameworks may lend more control to
developers 27

A long tail of standalone platforms relies on intuitive proprietary development
and execution environments 27

SaaS vendors now feature in virtually every segment of the enterprise
application market 28

Datamonitor Opinion 30

Those that manage to harness the cloud computing model stand to benefit 30

Cloud computing is here to stay, albeit not as the sole model of IT consumption
30

The Global Recession will accelerate the adoption of cloud computing 31

An elastic model that relies on flexible, usage-based pricing will be
particularly attractive in the downturn 31

Unchecked proliferation and inadequate management of cloud computing services
can fuel the backlash 32

Successful vendors will capitalize on short-term opportunities and prepare for
long-term implications 32

Vendors may not have to venture into cloud services, but strategic adjustments
will be necessary 32

Recommendations 33

Action points for enterprise technology vendors 33

Action points for enterprise IT decision makers 34

APPENDIX 36

Definitions 36

Methodology 36

Further reading 36

Ask the analyst 37

Datamonitor consulting 37

Disclaimer 37

List of Tables

Table 1: A selection of SaaS vendors by solution area, presented in alphabetical
order 28

List of Figures

Figure 1: Only one in three CIOs are comfortable with their department's
maintenance workload 3

Figure 2: Cloud computing appeared in the market in 2007 and has risen quickly
to universal prominence 4

Figure 3: Cloud computing overlaps with a range of related terms 5

Figure 4: Cloud computing as an IT consumption model 6

Figure 5: Cloud computing can be contextualized as the ongoing service-based
commoditization of IT 7

Figure 6: Software-Platform-Infrastructure (SPI): the basic cloud computing
taxonomy model 10

Figure 7: A reference cloud computing taxonomy combining the SPI and
Youseff-Butrico-DaSilva models 11

Figure 8: Cloud computing services are floating along the fabric/instance
provision spectrum 11

Figure 9: A private cloud is analogous to an intranet; public clouds are
approximate the scale of the internet 13

Figure 10: Adopting a service-based IT consumption strategy allows greater focus
on strategic issues 14

Figure 11: Gap between IT capacity and demand creates inefficiencies 15

Figure 12: Non-concurrent peaks in demand increase the utilization rate of cloud
infrastructures 16

Figure 13: The balance of the principal elements of service provider trust
shifts with the mode of provision 20

Figure 14: Outline of the cloud computing competitive landscape segmented by the
SPI model 23

Figure 15: Enterprises are likely to blend locally managed resources with public
clouds 31

To order this report:

Reportlinker Adds Can Cloud Computing Help Enterprises Weather the Economic
Storm? (Market Focus)

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0120040/Reportlinker-Adds-Can-Cloud-Computing-Help-Enterprises-Weather-the-Economic-Storm-(Market-Focus).html

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