Companies Building Private Clouds Focus On Infrastructure But Not Operations

Almost one-quarter of the infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals polled in our Forrsights Hardware Survey, Q3 2010 said that building a private cloud is a high or critical priority for them. Five percent said it is critical. If you're part of the 24% of companies focused on private cloud, then you share some common characteristics with your peers. First, you're probably a larger enterprise with more than 1,000 employees. Next, you're most likely increasing your spending on data center build-out and server infrastructure and on outsourcing and consultancies. You show a stronger understanding of how a private cloud can benefit your business and what characteristics it must have to appeal to your internal constituents. But you also likely share some blinders about what it really takes to operate a private cloud. You're underinvesting in key areas such as automation, self-service, and tracking and reporting. Evening out these investments and focusing on operational shortfalls can lead to better implementations sooner, which could drive differentiating value for your company.