Organisations that own supercomputers are generally in the large enterprise community. They are also amongst those that favour the idea of private clouds, where they can keep some measure of ownership over the infrastructure involved. So it perhaps comes as no surprise that a survey, taken by Platform Computing at the recent International Supercomputing Conference, shows that demand for private clouds remains undiminished, with 28% of organisations planning a deployment in 2010.
Though the level of intent remains the same as in 2009 the survey also shows that the main drivers have changed, and reflect improved awareness of the benefits of private clouds. The 2010 survey reveals that drivers for deploying private cloud have evened out between efficiency (27%), cost cutting (25%), experimenting with cloud (19%), resource scalability (17%) and IT responsiveness (6%). Platform suggests that this demonstrates an improvement in understanding of the benefits which private clouds can deliver. Furthermore, the increased significance placed on cost cutting (25% compared to 17% in 2009) also suggests that the cautious economic climate has influenced drivers for adoption.
There are also signs that supercomputer users now see the cloud as an extension of their existing infrastructure than something intrinsically `new’. Only 17% think it is new technology while 62% believe it to be an extension of their home turf of clusters and grids.
However while the appetite for private cloud remains as strong and the general understanding is better, the survey indicates that IT executives remain unconvinced about the benefits of using an external service provider for ‘cloud bursting’. Some 79% stated that they have no plans to do this in 2010. The survey also indicates that, with greater understanding, the barriers to adopting private cloud have also softened. Organisational culture as an inhibiting factor is down to 26% from 37% last year.
With that cultural decline has come a commensurate focus on the business and implementation issues behind private clouds, with security (26%), complexity of managing (25%), application software licensing (12%) and upfront costs (6%) cited as potential barriers.
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