57% of IT Professionals Expect to Adopt Cloud Storage

Storage Strategies NOW, a specialist storage analysis and research organization, released the findings of a report and survey on cloud storage. Titled, Cloud Storage: Adoption, Practice and Deployment, the report defines cloud storage, outlines the explosive growth in cloud storage and details how small and enterprise-size businesses are adopting and deploying cloud storage services for backup, archive, email and bulk storage data.

The report also includes the results of an IT Professionals Cloud Adoption Survey, co-sponsored by the Storage Networking Industry Association, which presents information on the status of the cloud storage market.

Key findings of the report and survey are:

• Over 57% of the respondents expect to adopt cloud storage;
• They will store e-mail, front office application data and backup data in the cloud, in that order; and,
• Standards are viewed as more important for public cloud implementations than private clouds.

"The IT Professionals Cloud Adoption Survey sheds new light on how organizations will deploy cloud storage services," says Deni Connor, principal analyst for SSG-NOW. "Among the findings are that standards for cloud storage are viewed as important in advancing the industry and that for many organizations, the security of data stored in the cloud isn’t as much of a concern as lack of budget is."

"With the SNIA Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) standard gaining commercial implementation, the marketplace can reduce vendor lock-in while enabling increased interoperability and data portability across service providers," says Wayne M. Adams, Chairman, SNIA Board of Directors. "CDMI is cited in the recent Storage Strategies NOW Cloud Storage market research study as very important standard for public/hybrid clouds that will increasingly be part of cloud RFPs."

The new report outlines technology solutions from more than 90 hardware and software vendors, cloud service providers and organizations with cloud storage initiatives. It also includes detailed product validation and pricing information and real-world use case scenarios, as well as best practices for selecting, deploying and managing cloud storage solutions.

Methodology
Information for this report was obtained through a number of sources including vendor questionnaires and interviews, end-user and managed service provider (MSP) interactions, available market data and a survey of IT professionals, conducted in the first quarter of 2011.

Pricing and Availability
Cloud Storage: Adoption, Practice and Deployment is available for purchase. The report, co-sponsored by the Storage Networking Industry Association, Avere, Cirtas, Cleversafe, KineticD, Metalogix, Nirvanix, Reldata, Scality, StorageCraft and VaultLogix, is $10,000.