Novell Survey Reveals Widespread and Accelerating Enterprise Adoption of Private Clouds

Novell, the leader in intelligent workload management, today announced the results of a new Harris Interactive survey of more than 200 IT leaders at large enterprise organizations. The survey, sponsored by Novell, reveals much broader adoption of cloud computing than has been suggested by previous research, and shows accelerating momentum behind developing private cloud infrastructures. The research strongly suggests cloud computing -- both public and private -- will be an increasing part of the mix of resources deployed by enterprise IT organizations, and that companies are particularly interested in simplifying management across their integrated physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Cloud Adoption -- A Mixed Approach
Cloud adoption is a focus for many enterprise organizations -- but the question remains, what is the best way to leverage the power of cloud computing, maximizing efficiency gains and cost savings while minimizing risk? According to this survey by Harris Interactive, focused primarily on IT director and above at large enterprises organizations (2,500-20,000+ employees), 77 percent report using some form of cloud computing today, much higher than previously reported. Other key findings tied to cloud adoption include:

• Private clouds are the next logical step for organizations already implementing virtualization, according to 89 percent of the respondents.
• 34 percent of survey respondents are using a mixed approach of private and public cloud computing, with 43 percent planning to increase their use of the combined approach.
• 87 percent of respondents believe public cloud computing adoption will occur alongside of, instead of replacing, company-owned data centers, with 92 percent indicating an increase in public cloud use as current IT platforms are replaced.
• 31 percent of respondents find that a key benefit to private cloud computing is the ability to manage a heterogeneous infrastructure.

Security Remains a Top Concern
The Harris Interactive study also revealed security as a leading barrier to cloud computing adoption, with 83 percent of survey respondents feeling private cloud computing offers most of the advantages of public cloud computing (freedom from maintaining hardware, lower cost upkeep, resource scalability, lower initial costs) without the security and compliance issues of the public cloud. Additional findings include:

• 91 percent are concerned about security issues in the public cloud, with 50 percent indicating security as the primary barrier to implementation.
• 86 percent believe data is more secure in a private cloud.
• 76 percent of those surveyed feel outside vendors are not as diligent about data security as internal IT departments.
• Difficulty maintaining regulatory policy compliance in the public cloud versus that of the private cloud was an issue for 81 percent of respondents.

"The survey results are telling," said Jim Ebzery, senior vice president and general manager of Security, Management and Operating Platforms at Novell. "The path to public cloud computing needs to begin with the private cloud, learning to leverage the public cloud within the safety of the enterprise network. Despite these concerns, enterprises are moving forward with cloud computing -- whether in a private cloud, public cloud or in a hybrid cloud environment. Based on the market need for secure, compliant solutions to better manage applications in the cloud, Novell’s leading-edge WorkloadIQ(TM) products and solutions are well positioned to provide customers with the technology necessary to secure and manage cloud environments."

The data reported by Harris Interactive demonstrates the market need for an integrated approach to security and workload management in the cloud. Understanding the concerns cloud adoption can raise within an enterprise, Novell offers WorkloadIQ, a differentiated approach to achieving intelligent workload management by enabling organizations to build, secure, manage and measure workloads across physical, virtual and cloud environments.

Most recently, Novell introduced Novell® Cloud Manager, enabling customers to create and securely manage a private cloud atop existing data center resources and infrastructure. Designed for the heterogeneous reality of most IT environments, Novell Cloud Manager gives users the freedom and flexibility to create and manage private clouds. Novell Cloud Manager supports all leading hypervisors, operating systems and hardware platforms, allowing enterprises to manage their entire infrastructure as a seamless whole.