Public Cloud Computing: From the Margins to the Mainstream of IT Practice

| Cloud & Virtualization, Data Center, Productivity, White Papers

Public cloud computing – after years of fits and starts and no shortage of loud debate – is quietly becoming mainstream IT practice. Investment and deployment trends suggest a bright future. In fact, according to a recent IDG Research Services survey of 400 IT executives and managers across the world, on average, 16 percent of the IT budget is already devoted to public cloud expenditures. In two years, public cloud expenditures are expected to constitute one-third (33 percent) of that budget.

What’s driving this impressive growth, and what workloads are migrating most rapidly to the public cloud? The IDG survey examines current cloud adoption, and plans, for five critical use cases:

1. Development and testing of applications
2. Deploying standard packaged applications
3. Disaster recovery for infrastructure, desktops and databases
4. Development of Web and mobile applications
5. Delivering virtual desktops and applications

As with public cloud computing in general, the respondents broadly predict significant growth to occur in each of the five use cases examined. IT executives and managers – long charged with adding business value to their organizations – have the opportunity to realize that goal through the strategic use of public cloud solutions.