Cloud computing, an innovative technology of information technology is an evolution of numerous technologies, applications and business strategies. Do you know which country leads in adopting cloud computing?

 According to a report by Frost & Sullivan, it is Australia that continues to lead the adoption of cloud computing in the Asia Pacific region with 43 percent of Australian enterprises now using cloud computing in some form and 41 percent of IT decision makers indicating that cloud computing will be a top priority for them in the current fiscal year.  These companies are adopting cloud computing to reduce their capital and operational expenditure.

According to a press release, the study identifies three main cloud computing deployment models, public, private and hybrid cloud.

Frost & Sullivan (News - Alert), a consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years.

Hybrid cloud deployments are the most popular model in Australia having been adopted by 22 percent of total enterprises and by more than 50 percent of current cloud users. Frost & Sullivan expects hybrid clouds to remain the dominant deployment model in the near term due to the flexibility offered to choose the right cloud environment based on cost, security, reliability and service level agreements. The major cloud services providers include Microsoft, Google, IBM, VMware, Amazon, HP, Cisco, Rackspace and Telstra (News - Alert).

When talk about delivery of cloud services, the decade-old software-as-a-service model continues to lead the way, having been adopted by 72% of cloud users.

The Frost & Sullivan study predicts that the companies will continue to be cautious about the type of workloads that they move to the cloud, performing rigorous risk-benefit analysis before doing so.

Arun Chandrasekaran, Research Director – ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, says, “There has been a significant increase in the use of cloud services in Australia in the past 12 months and all the indications are that this will continue.  While a formal “cloud first” policy does not exist yet in most enterprises, the idea of a “cloud alternative” evaluation is increasingly common. We expect to see a number of trial deployments this year as companies dip their toes in the water and test non-mission critical applications and infrastructure.”

 In other company news, TMCnet reported that Frost & Sullivan has presented its 2011 European Technology Innovation Award in Mobile Backhaul and Broadband Solutions to Bluwan.