• Cloud computing is on-demand access to virtualized IT resources that are housed outside of your own data center, shared by others, simple to use, paid for via subscription and accessed over the Web.

• Cloud computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualized resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the “cloud.”

Despite any confusion about the role cloud computing should play within IT organizations and how the solution will be carried out, it continues to gain momentum. In fact, 99% of the respondents to F5′s survey are actively discussing or implementing a cloud solution within their organization and more than half (66%) of the participants have budgets set aside for cloud solutions.

IT Managers have high expectations for what can be “offloaded” to cloud environments . 75% of the survey respondents believe PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) is part of the cloud. 66% said Iaas (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) should be included. Interestingly, the more “popular” buzzword SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) registered as a cloud component with only 60% of the participants.

The core, organization-wide drivers behind the need for a public cloud are slightly different from the requirements reported by private cloud users.

• Public Cloud – #1 efficiency, #2 reducing capital costs, #3 easing staffing issues
• Private Cloud – #1 reducing capital costs, #2 agility, #3 easing staffing issues

Not surprisingly however, most IT Managers want to examine the critical technology behind the cloud infrastructure. The main concerns they want addressed before adopting could computing solutions are Access Control, Network Security, and Server and Storage Virtualization.