A NEW report from the World Economic Forum says the benefits of cloud computing have only begun to be realised, but several obstacles must be addressed before it can be more widely used.
The report defines cloud computing as applications delivered as services over the internet and the hardware and systems in the data centres that provide those services.
Whereas early benefits of the cloud, such as reducing costs and improving business processes, are well understood, the report said these are “just scratching the surface of cloud’s potential”.
Cloud advocates are usually quick to tout the cost advantages of delivering IT this way because of its obvious appeal to business decisionmakers. Instead, a survey in the WEF report found 86 per cent of respondents said the cloud’s main benefit was its potential for enabling new services or products. Cost-reduction came second, with enabling collaboration and information-sharing between professionals.
Some of the report’s more optimistic predictions are that the cloud will allow “new levels of productivity and innovation”.
The document also quotes forecasts that new and existing companies using cloud services could create between 300,000 and 1.5 million new jobs in Europe in the next five years.
The report was careful to temper any hype by acknowledging “significant barriers” in the way of widespread adoption of cloud services. These include maintaining the security of data belonging to consumers, businesses and governments.
Privacy is another concern, because the nature of cloud computing means information is stored outside an organisation’s own premises, in some cases not even in the same country.
In Europe, there is still a lot of fear about being “locked in” to one service provider.
The report also suggested possible initiatives for cloud providers to help adoption of the technology, such as providing greater visibility about where data is located, making well-defined commitments on service levels and making it easy to switch providers and, by extension, to import or export data from cloud services.
Hilary O’Meara, who heads Accenture’s technology practice in Ireland, said every new wave of technology brought risks.
“Right now there are open questions that need to be resolved, in particular for Government which obviously holds a lot of personal data,” she said. “I think business demand will drive us to solving these. It won’t be today or tomorrow but we will need to get around them.”
Some of the larger government departments here are in the early stages of evaluating how to use cloud technology. One option could be for testing IT system performance without affecting personal data, said Ms O’Meara.
The report was developed with the WEF IT industry partnership and Accenture, with input from technology heavyweights including Salesforce.com’s Marc Benioff, Nelson Mattos of Google and Microsoft’s Craig Mundie.
It is the first part of a two-year research initiative that combines surveys, focus group discussions and global workshops. A second phase, due to be completed next year, will focus on developing strategic options and policy recommendations for the cloud.
