Need for more Australian specialist Cloud providers: CIO study

With Australian CIOs looking overseas for Cloud services, the need for more Australian specialist infrastructure and platform-as-a-service providers presents opportunities for the local Cloud service market, according to a new study from analyst firm, Telsyte.

The Australian Infrastructure and Cloud Computing Market Study 2012 surveyed 260 CIOs and found that two-thirds of enterprises are buying infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) from a Cloud service provider based offshore.

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Telsyte senior analyst, Rodney Gedda, said that for many CIOs the advent of on-demand Cloud computing services has provided an option for service delivery without the need to manage physical infrastructure.

“About 35 per cent of Australian enterprises are subscribing to some type of IaaS or PaaS Cloud service, with the majority of subscriptions, and data, heading to overseas providers,” he said in a statement.

He added that 36 per cent of enterprises have no restrictions on data being sent offshore, creating an opportunity for global Cloud providers to compete with local operators.

“However, a significant 29 per cent of CIOs say their organisation’s data cannot leave Australia,” he said in a statement.

According to Telsyte, development and investment in on-premise infrastructure and private Clouds is still strong with many unable to rely on public Cloud services for a number of reasons, including data location restrictions.

“With more than 50 per cent of Australian enterprises using server virtualization technology, the interest in private Clouds is also strong with 19 per cent of organisations building a private Cloud and a further 35 per cent considering a private Cloud,” Gedda said in a statement.

The study also found that some companies were using public Cloud, albeit for testing of server and storage environments through to development, testing and deployment of applications.

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