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Analysis: Cloud computing ' the higher you get, the clearer the skies
In the world of enterprise, cloud computing has been one of the most entertained technologies over the past five years
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In the world of enterprise, cloud computing has been one of the most entertained technologies over the past five years.
Growing in prominence in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2009, cloud computing was quickly seen as a method that organizations use to reduce running costs ' decreasing their capital expenditure (capex), while transferring into a more predictable operational expenditure (opex) model.
The notion of utilizing IT technology as a 'utility' was attractive in nature, and appealing to the new trend of cost conscious organizations.
Little news was made when the concept of cloud computing entered the IT lexicon in the 1980s.
The concept as whole is not new per se, however, it is something that was awoken based on a necessity.
The author maintains that the ramp-up for cloud computing would not have been as driven as it is today had it not been for the financial crisis to begin with.
In any sense, the concept of cloud computing is now an 'everyday' word, and mentalities have shifted dramatically toward innovation of this technology into the provisioning of services in a global shift toward the so called 'third platform of IT' ' essentially feeding into the notion that 'cloud' is no longer talked about, but is secondary in nature to everything else IT.
Indonesia stands at an odd stage of cloud computing consumption, where the idea of public cloud versus private cloud takes precedence in the enterprise discussion, but also demarcation between consumer and enterprise consumption of cloud applications.
Without getting overly technical in this discussion, International Data Corporation (IDC) Indonesia's survey in 2012 revealed that more than 38 percent of organizations were consuming some sort of service over the public cloud (essentially over the Internet).
No, that was not a printing error ' a whopping 38 percent of enterprises surveyed in 2012 revealed this fairly significant figure.
The only issue was, this was revealed to not be true.
A further examination of the results showed that majority of enterprises that claimed to have been consuming some form of a service over the public cloud was actually doing nothing more than utilizing applications such as Google Docs, Dropbox and the likes.
This is where we noted the confusion in the industry.
IDC Indonesia then reembarked on a similar survey, but this time clearly demarcated between applications consumed by consumers (you and I) versus that which will be consumed by an enterprise (and this included your standard database applications, financial/accounting applications, business-based applications and the likes, as well as server and storage infrastructure).
The results returned was somewhat different this time, with only close to 14 percent of enterprises surveyed suggesting that they are consuming some form of public cloud service.
Now, that makes sense.
Fast forward to 2014, and the tune has changed.
Cloud computing has risen through the ranks of organizations who have actually been examining and looking for a continuous manner to build more efficient businesses.
Now cloud computing is no longer seen as something only the vendors talk about ' but as something that is actually currently being adopted, and being part of the organization's transformative behavior toward achieving its business goals.
While IDC Indonesia has still noted a large group of enterprises with a huge preference toward owning and running their own data center due to security, privacy and other performance related concerns, public cloud consumption has risen in fame across this similar group as they explore a hybrid version of adoption.
But does Indonesia have a way to go in maximizing the potential that cloud technology can bring to its organization? Yes it does.
As an elusive IT services outsourcing culture ' a stark contrast to its human capital outsourcing culture ' Indonesia stands at a point where traditional 'on-premise' IT is still preferred simply for the fact that its easier to control.
The very thought of relinquishing control to a third part scares many Indonesia enterprises, and IDC Indonesia has found that more than 40 percent of IT budgets are still parked aside for 'on
premise' IT.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's also not exactly the most efficient thing either.
But we do see light at the end of the tunnel, and IDC anticipates that the notion of outsourcing services, and the indirect cultivation of this habit will lead toward an increased cloud adoption over the years.
At present, IDC Indonesia is predicting a business-as-usual situation for public cloud consumption, with a little bit more excitement occurring for those enterprises looking at building their own private cloud infrastructure.
Once again in resisting getting into an overly technical discussion of this topic, as with all things, it takes time.
Indonesia is a nation flout with legacy ' whether it is entwined in its culture, in its habits, and even to its IT consumption habits.
When it gets right down to it, there's no use trying to pretend as our surveys continue to show that 'on-premise' legacy infrastructure is still going to be the preference for enterprises in the year 2015.
Exploration is going to continue, and IDC Indonesia anticipates that as maturity of companies grow, and the emergence of more enterprises and small and medium businesses (SMBs) trying to accelerate its development begins taking place, public, private and hybrid cloud services consumption will continue to play an underlying role in all things IT for these entities.
