Hybrid cloud adoption to double by 2015, says Infonetics

Hybrid cloud services, which offer businesses the option to manage some resources in-house and put others into a cloud, are set to double by 2015, says Infonetics in its latest Cloud Service Strategies: North American Enterprise Survey.

Infonetics hybrid cloud services 2013According to the research firm, enterprises' move to adopt a hybrid cloud is driven by four main factors: performance, agility, scalability and cost reduction.

"The transformation to the cloud is spelling disruption and opportunity for network equipment vendors, who would be wise to demonstrate how their offerings can be part of a hybrid cloud environment where interoperability between network management, server virtualization, and data center orchestration platforms are critical factors for success," said Cliff Grossner, directing analyst for data center and cloud at Infonetics Research.

The service mix is also evolving.

Between 2013 and 2015, enterprises will increase spending on a mix of platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and cloud-as-a-service (CaaS) solutions, with over half of survey respondents saying that shifting to the cloud will make it necessary to consider alternate network vendors.

In choosing a cloud service provider, 83 percent of enterprises said that service and support are key elements they look for, followed closely by experience and pricing structure.

Service providers such as AT&T (NYSE: T), CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) via its CenturyLink Technology Solutions unit, and Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN) are responding with a host of hybrid cloud services.

CenturyLink now offers VMware's vCloud hybrid service over its global network, while Windstream offers a host of solutions via its partners VMware, NetApp and EMC.

For more:
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