Cloud computing is starting to hit the mainstream in the enterprise as cloud resources are becoming a critical part of enterprise infrastructure, increasingly supporting mission-critical applications. Cloud providers are now expected to meet enterprise security, reliability and availability requirements, a new report from Verizon found. The report examines factors such as cloud adoption and usage trends, the growth in demand for virtual machines, memory and storage, and future cloud expectations.
According to Verizon’s “2013 State of the Enterprise Cloud Report,” conducted between January 2012 and June 2013, enterprises are spending 45% more each month on cloud services as they start using cloud for more business functions. The report found that organizations are now using cloud for more than just testing and development, moving business-critical applications into cloud infrastructure, with production applications now accounting for 60% of cloud usage.
The use of cloud-based storage went up by 90% during the time period studied, with cloud-based memory usage increasing by 100%. At the same time, organizations are looking for ways to increase cloud efficiency in order to improve memory and storage capacity out of each deployed virtual machine. This led to a modest increase in VM deployments of 35% over the same time period.
There has been a growth in usage of hybrid cloud services among enterprises, the report notes, as this approach allows organizations to keep greater control over their data and applications. Enterprises are also highly focused on getting enterprise grade security and availability from these hybrid cloud solutions. The report stated, “Again, as critical applications migrate to the cloud – even hybrid clouds – the cloud needs to mature to support the needs of the enterprise.” The report noted that forward-thinking organizations are leveraging a hybrid cloud model to create differentiation and competitive advantage.
According to the report, the growth in big data will be one of the drivers of further cloud adoption among enterprises as a result of the increasing demands and volumes associated with data management and analysis.
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