Private cloud computing to gain priority over public clouds: Gartner

Despite all the confusion surrounding the cloud computing concept, organizations are definitely excited about "cloud computing", either private or public, according to a report released by IT research firm Gartner. The report indicates that IT organizations across the world will spend more money on private cloud computing investments than on offerings from public cloud providers through 2012. Gartner defines private cloud computing as a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to internal customers using Internet technologies.

Gartner's three-point action plan for cloud computing adoption Now * Experiment with the cloud and discover where it is already taking place in the enterprise. * Lead a cross-organization cloud initiative. Next 90 days * Use virtualization as a catalyst to drive IT modernization. * Portfolio your services. * Develop strategies for services and private cloud. * Identify new opportunities for the enterprise that are emerging due to cloud computing. Next 12 months * Develop an overall cloud computing strategy. * Build a dynamic sourcing organization.

As per the Gartner report, private cloud services will be a stepping stone to future public cloud services, and will eventually span private and public cloud resources in a hybrid manner. Gartner analysts said appropriate investments in private cloud computing will also make it easier for enterprises to gradually use public cloud services in the future. For services destined to be cloud at some point in time, enterprises should evaluate the return on investment from developing private cloud services, while waiting for external offerings to mature.

Enterprises also need to be aware that some IT services are ideal for the cloud computing style and others for more integration with the business. Once it is established that a particular service is suitable for cloud computing, a decision needs to be made as to whether it makes more business senses to wait for a mature cloud service to appear or to develop private cloud services sooner.