Cloud computing tops projected 2012 IT investments

Wednesday, December 07, 2011 5:44:56 PM

Cloud technology has taken the IT industry by storm during the past 12 months, and for the second consecutive year respondents to a survey named cloud computing the top IT spending priority.

According to a recent Unisys report, 50 percent of IT staff believe cloud computing is their organization's top IT investment order for 2012, up from 44 percent last year. Meanwhile, 21 percent of respondents said cybersecurity is the top priority, 21 percent said mobile/social computing and 8 percent said big data.

"From the US Federal Government's 'cloud first' policy to enterprise business units' demands for greater IT responsiveness, business decision makers are embracing both private and public cloud computing models," said Colin Lacey, vice president of data center services and solutions at Unisys.

Several other cloud providers and internet security experts have begun making IT predictions for the following year. Joshua McKenty, CEO of Piston Cloud Computing, believes cloud technology will begin to change the world, literally, as developing nations and other organizations adopt the cloud and provide major technological advances for people on a worldwide spectrum.

Additionally, a recent IBM survey found 75 percent of IT managers plan on using cloud computing during the next two years, and 51 percent of respondents said their mobile strategy will include cloud integration.