Lack Of Interoperability Can Throttle Cloud Adoption

Lack of interoperability among cloud service providers (CSPs) and absence of well defined standards will throttle large scale adoption of cloud computing at least in the near term. This requires various forums to rally around to set these standards in place. The process has already begun- for example, the World Economic Forum has been active in negotiating with governments to standardise cloud computing practices via regulatory push.

This is to bring the portability aspect to cloud models where clients can easily switch clouds, a functionality which isn’t offered fully any vendor in the current scenario. The portability functionality would apply more from a public cloud perspective because the success of cloud computing will be pushed more by public cloud adoption even though within the large enterprises, private cloud has more interest and will to use.

Enterprises that have already taken the cloud route will depend more on cloud delivery models and services as their businesses expand. It has now become imperative for large IT vendors to help establish standards that will ensure seamless interoperability between different CSPs.

More and more companies today are going for shared services as it cuts down capital expenditure drastically. This amounts to a net decrease of hardware purchase – something undesirable for the IT vendors. But, the shared services model also has an upside for the vendors. They can offset losses due to decreased demand for hardware with a demand spike for cloud services as now total addressable market opens up manifold with utility based adoption without much upfront investments.

This resultant increase in demand for shared services will be a major revenue spinner for the IT vendors. Interoperability, contract guarantees on availability of data, confidentiality and Intellectual Property rights protection will prove vital for a successful working relationship between CSPs, IT vendors and the user community.