Interest in cloud computing high for NZ companies

UPDATED:  Research has found that the majority of NZ businesses surveyed believe cloud computing is relevant to them.

Forrester Research Australia conducted a survey of 157 companies, 16 in New Zealand in the the fourth quarter of 2010.  Similar surveys had been conducted by the company over the course of about five years, the company said.

The research found that 63% of the New Zealand companies surveyed believed cloud computing was relevant to their organizations, compared with 78% of Australian companies, 72% of Singaporean companies and 60% of Indian companies. The total percent of companies who believed cloud computing was relevant to their organisation was 70%, a result which had more than doubled over the past 18 months, the research said.

56% of New Zealand companies either had a cloud computing initiative in place in their organization, or were currently planning one, as 25% of New Zealand companies were currently using cloud computing in their organization and 31% were currently planning an initiative.

However 44% had no plans to implement cloud computing within their organization at present, the highest of the countries surveyed, with Singapore the next closest at 42%.  36% of Singaporean companies were currently using cloud computing in their organization.

These results compared with 43% of Australian companies who were currently using cloud computing, 18% who were currently planning, and 38% who had no plans to implement an initiative.

India had the lowest percentage of companies currently using cloud computing at 20% but the highest currently planning an initiative at 42%.

Forrester Research Australia vice president John Brand said that the survey reflected others conducted, in that interest had rapidly increased and uptake had "surged" ahead of what the company had expected.

He said in terms of New Zealand specific research, the sample size was small, but the results were again fairly consistent, with most companies believing cloud computing was relevant.

The New Zealand market had the highest percentage of businesses who had no cloud computing intiatives or plans because it was slightly cynical, Mr Brand said, meaning in some cases the market learnt from the mistakes of others.

"The interesting thing as an analyst about the New Zealand Market is it's small enough to be innovative, and mature enough to be highly cynical."

However he believed uptake was increasing, as he thought 44% of companies who had no plans to implement cloud computing was an improvement.

"My recollection from previous surveys was that it was well above the 60% mark with no plans to implement, as of only a couple of years back."

Mr Brand said he was unable to give details about the companies surveyed, as Forrester's data collection processes were driven largely by ensuring anonymity.

He said another interesting aspect of the research was cloud computing's previous focus around massively scalable infrastructure, for which New Zealand did not have a requirement.  However this presented a different set of opportunities, Mr Brand said, in terms of making the infrastructure more efficient.

"So while you might not have the benefit of scale you will probably find benefits in other areas, and that's likely to be in areas of flexibility, of cost effectiveness, in efficiency - that's where I'd expect to see New Zealand take up the lead.  Using that combination of efficiency and cynicism you actually come up with some pretty innovative uses of the technology."

The research showed the primary reasons for adopting cloud computing included reduced hardware infrastructure costs and scalability on demand to meet business needs.

Physical network constraints and latency on the international services were also challenges when implementing cloud computing, Mr Brand said, but were fairly minor.  The roll out of the Ultra Fast Broadband (UFB) network was not expected to have a direct result in cloud computing uptake, but would help it, he said.