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I somehow forgot my poll about cloud computing which I started last year. I wanted to know how many Windows admins are already involved in cloud computing and how interested 4sysops readers are in this new technology. The result is quite interesting:
At time of this writing, 17% are already using cloud technology, 11% are planning to introduce cloud computing in their organization, and 24% have no such plans. The most interesting result here is that 48% of those who took part in this poll didn’t choose any of these three options. Does this mean that almost half of participants simply don’t know if their company will introduce cloud computing?
I was even more surprised about the second part of the poll. I have been planning to blog more about cloud computing on 4sysops, and that’s why I wanted to know if my readers would be interested in this topic. Shortly after I launched the poll, there was a head-to-head race between those who are interested in cloud computing and those who are not. However, the longer I had this poll in the sidebar, the more votes for cloud computing were coming in.
One explanation is that the share of supporters among 4sysops subscribers is lower than among those visitors who come from referring sites such as Google. Another explanation could be that the overall support for cloud computing is growing because of the news in recent weeks.
Anyway, the fact that only 38% want to learn more about cloud computing and that 33% are not interested at all is remarkable. I am particularly interested in the reasons the 32% had for voting against cloud computing. Most likely, they believe cloud computing is only a hype that won’t play a major role in IT in the years to come. It is also possible that they think that even if cloud computing will prevail, it won’t affect their own work. I would even venture to guess that some simply don’t want IT to change because they are afraid to lose their job.
I am very much interested to learn how you voted and why. Please leave a comment below.
Well, cloud computing is an interesting thing for sure, but the higher ups at my company don’t really care about it.
While Amazon’s EC2 and Microsoft’s Azure look both like very interesting to me, i haven’t found use for either of them for me personally, nor can i think of any use cases for our customers.
On the other hand we have Google Apps and Microsoft BPOS, both of which are something that some of our customers are interested in. However, our higher ups aren’t interested in this, citing there’s no money to be made reselling BPOS and providing support for it.
I use Google Apps Premier for my private Mail, and it’s not something i’d recommend a company to use, given my experience with Exchange/Outlook and what that combination can do. BPOS on the other hand seems like a good offering, and it’s probably cheaper than buying an SBS server and running the infrastructure on your own.
As such, i don’t see why it’s that big of a deal. Either the technology isn’t of any use to any of our customers (EC2) or the bosses don’t care (BPOS). I’ll still try to keep up with what happens, but the only time this will get any use out of is when i will switch jobs.
Well, management errors are common these days when it comes to IT which is no wonder considering how fast IT is evolving now. This is also why it is so dangerous. So you better start convincing your higher ups now.
As things stands now EC2 and Azure are not for everyone. However, this technology is especially interesting for SMBs because it allows them to outsource their IT easily without the risk of loosing control and flexibility. It is also a big chance for service providers who can manage outsourced servers in the cloud for SMBs. Those who offer this service have a significant competitive advantage.
I wouldn’t recommend Google Apps either. It simply lacks too many essential features. I have been using Gmail’s web interface myself exclusively for a year or so. Even for my one-man-show this tool lacks too many features. It is certainly not an option for large organizations because it reduces productivity significantly. The other Google Apps lack even more important features.