By Laurie Head
AIS Network Vice President
How successful are private clouds, anyway?
That’s the question asked by a recent research report from Information Week. The survey reveals that most companies with private clouds in place are pleased with the results and are experiencing heightened efficiency and lower costs.
I find this report particularly interesting since we’re building more and more private clouds — and particularly SharePoint private clouds — every day. While it’s not entirely clear to me how many of the companies surveyed are hosting their private cloud with a hosting provider or building their private cloud on-premise, I think that the takeaways are broadly applicable.
Network Computing editor Mike Fratto, who wrote the 66-page report, said in his abstract:
The big takeaway? Those with private clouds experience more efficient use of hardware and superior scalability and reliability, and they make better use of IT’s time. These are all measurable benefits that can make your IT department shine in the eyes of users and the CFO. Those with private clouds also report success in lowering capital and operational costs and total cost of ownership.
There are some keys to success, though: Have a well-thought-out migration plan. Make sure new software can leverage the scaling and reliability features of your private cloud, and be prepared to train employees on the new systems. They’ll love you for it, and you’ll get better results.
A majority of the 414 IT professionals surveyed said they aren’t running private clouds yet. However, 21 percent of respondents said they have private clouds in place, and 30 percent more said they’re beginning private cloud projects. Of the respondents with private clouds, 72 percent described their implementations as “very successful” or “a complete success.” Another quarter said they were “somewhat successful,” while only 1 percent chose “somewhat unsuccessful.” Most reported having successfully lowered CapEx and OpEx.
The report digs deeper into cloud expectations, cloud costs, cloud maintenance, challenges, obstacles, vendor choices, best practices, keys to success and more. You can download the report here (link has expired).