Cloud computing, so far, has not lived up to expectations. It is slow, it has troubles housing huge enterprise critical data, and it is perceived as insecure. A key reason is that many historic clouds achieved their cost savings by using older technologies.
On the other hand, the positive side of the 2012 cloud reality: Little by little, large cutting-edge companies and innumerable mid-sized enterprises are moving more of their computing into clouds. But the clouds are not necessarily what were envisioned a few years ago. Cloud computing in 2012 clouds are better in performance with a reduced cost savings.
What has been fueling this migration into the new-style cloud, suggested Bill Michaels, a spokesman with NEC, is "an exponential growth in data" coupled with persistent "concerns about security." The first fact is fuel for cloud, but the second, said Michaels, is prompting enterprises to put their data in private clouds, where they can call more of the shots around security.
"The organizations that are moving into the cloud are not using public clouds, they are using private clouds," says Kent Christensen, virtualization practice manager at DataLink, a data center firm. "They are not saving that much money against traditional data centers."
That is the rub: public clouds can provide highly cost effective computing where resources are shared, costs can be low as users pay as they go but, increasingly, the emerging solution that is gaining favor with large enterprise is the "hybrid" clouds. What that provides is a mix of traditional data center plus use of a private cloud plus limited use of a public cloud.
"Large companies find it hard to live 100 percent in the cloud," admitted Rajesh Ram, a vice president at cloud provider Egnyte. "But they are finding the solutions they want in a blended approach, a hybrid cloud."
Customers, at the same time, have gotten smarter about clouds. This has put pressure on cloud providers to up their game and to dramatically improve performance. Most customers have come to realize clouds are not the solution that is carefree. They want to know the details about the where their data is hosted physically, performance and uptime. Cloud providers have wanted to disclose this as little as possible, and customers are asking for log files.
Cloud operators are finding ways to respond to customer demands for more robust and consistent performance. High performance cloud requires detailed planning for bandwidth and for I/O loads, and the cloud should provide what enterprise needs.
A cloud allows for much faster delivery of new resources than would expanding a data center. That alone is prompting more companies to deploy private clouds to cope with bursts of unexpected data and heightened demand for computing resources. To that end, clouds are the fast and easy answer to many companies.
This is the year that enterprises will begin populating the cloud, and occupying it with the hope of a better technology.