Cloud Confusion Steals Virtualization Spotlight

As mentioned in this Network World report, an IDC report estimated that in 2009 cloud-based services accounted for $16 billion in global IT spending and that the forecast would rise to $55.5 billion by 2014. The problem, according to details in this story is that many of the customers whose money might go to cloud computing IT are 'suffering from cloud confusion'.

"That confusion makes many companies leery about cloud computing, but not about the concrete benefits they get from the virtualization technologies on which cloud services would have to be built, according to Bernard Golden, CEO of consultancy Hyperstratus and a CIO.com blogger.

"'You start with a base level [of virtualization] and add more layers to get more agility or resiliency and eventually get full automation and governance and other things you associate with cloud computing,' Golden says. 'There is this notion that people don't want to build internal clouds because it's too much hassle, so they do these tactical things. If you add up enough tactics, you end up with a strategy.'"

Read the Full Story at Network World