Federal government agencies are poised to begin significant cloud migration of mission-critical IT resources, according to a survey of 151 federal IT managers and systems integrators.
The survey, by research firm MeriTalk and sponsored by VMware and EMC, showed that one-third of respondents say they plan to move some mission-critical applications to the cloud in the next year.
Within two years, the IT managers said they will move 26 percent of their mission-critical apps to the cloud, and in five years, they expect 44 percent of their mission-critical apps will run in the cloud.
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In the survey, called "Mission-critical Cloud: Ready for the Heavy Lift?," the managers also said they would save a total of $16.6 billion annually, or 21 percent of their budget, if they moved just three mission-critical apps to the cloud.
In addition, more than 90 percent of the respondents who have moved mission-critical apps to the cloud reported success.
Security remains the primary roadblock to cloud adoption, with 73 percent naming it as a barrier.
Consequently, 38 percent of the managers said they have moved a mission-critical app to a private cloud; 11 percent reported moving a mission-critical app to a hybrid cloud; and 10 percent said they have moved a mission-critical app to a public cloud.
Aileen Black, vice president of public sector for VMware, said most federal IT managers are using private cloud to ensure control and security of mission-critical apps but that they will likely begin to use hybrid clouds, which is a mixture of private and public.
"The federal IT managers understand how they can take advantage of the cloud and see the benefits of it," she said in an interview.
PUBLISHED SEPT. 21, 2012
This story was updated on Sept. 21, 2012, at 3:35 p.m. PST, to include statements made after press time from Aileen Black, vice president of public sector for VMware.
