Lack of trust is cloud's biggest inhibitor, say network vendors

Trust is the biggest inhibitor to the adoption of cloud computing, according to networking technology vendors at NetEvents in Barcelona. "If it's a private cloud, there's implicit trust, but it takes time for a CIO to write his death warrant," said Justin Fielder, CTO at easynet. "If ERP goes into the cloud and it stops, then the business stops."

David Hill, European vice-president at testing company Spirent said that another challenge was that "people don't know what they want, they just want to reduce costs. And they're not sure they can get availability, scalability and security."

Introducing the conference discussion, analyst Sean Hackett of the 451 group said: "The cloud is in pilot phase. Corporations are deciding which apps will fit where. They're kicking the tyres."

Hackett said that research showed that almost 40 percent said that their cloud budgets will increase, with the biggest driver being an ability to scale combined with quicker time to deliver services, then avoidance of capital expenditure. "People don't want to pay for the stuff they don't use."

The inhibitors included compliance especially in countries with strong privacy legislation, said Hackett, followed by security and governance. He said that the need for more detailed service level agreements will heighten as cloud services become more critical.