CompTIA Study Finds Cloud Adopters are Mixing and Matching Deployments

When it comes to cloud computing adoption, the mix-and-match approach appears to be the name of the game. At least according to recent findings from CompTIA (News - Alert), which says that organizations are adopting multiple cloud models in a variety of combinations, in an effort to squeeze the most benefits out of the cloud.

The Fourth Annual Trends in Cloud Computing study shows that companies are switching public cloud providers, shifting from public to private clouds and even moving some applications on premise, in some instances. The report is based on a survey of 501 cloud end users along with 400 IT channel companies.

There’s no doubt that cloud adoption is on the rise among enterprises, and a recent study from 451 Research showed that 69 percent of IT professionals and decision-makers with cloud computing budgets will increase spending over the next two years. Awesome Cloud forecasts the total size of the cloud computing market will triple from 2008 to 2014, reaching $150 billion by next year. And 30 percent of Global 1000 companies are expected to adopt two or more cloud services during that period.

Just what those services will be, and exactly how they will be delivered, is up for debate. CompTIA finds that more than six in 10 cloud adopters have made additional shifts of either infrastructure or applications after their original foray into the cloud. The survey also finds that 59 percent of those queried rely on the cloud for business processes like storage, with another 48 using it for disaster recovery. And 44 percent of those surveyed use the cloud for security services.

According to CompTIA, there are three types of cloud migration scenarios impacting adopters today. The first involves companies utilizing a public cloud provider that make the decision to move to a different public cloud provider based on security, costs, features, standards, customers service or other factors.

The second scenario is a public-to-private migration in which software is used to manage resources automatically, dynamically allocating them as needed without any manual intervention required. The third type of cloud migration taking place based on CompTIA’s survey is a public-to-on-premise one. And that migration is usually motivated by security concerns. In this instance, organizations may opt to put sensitive applications on the premises while keeping less vital ones in the cloud.